The much-anticipated Dencun upgrade has exceeded expectations, as Ethereum’s Layer-2 (L2) networks, such as Optimism and Base, have experienced a significant decrease in transaction fees.
The rollout of the Dencun upgrade occurred on March 13th at exactly 13:55 (UTC) on the Ethereum mainnet. Dencun, which is the most substantial upgrade on Ethereum since the “Merge,” introduced a mechanism to reduce transaction costs on L2 networks.
With the implementation of Dencun on the Ethereum mainnet, L2 networks have adopted a new method of storing data called Binary Large Objects (blobs). The blob feature allows L2 networks to store data off-chain, which becomes inaccessible after three weeks, as opposed to the expensive “call data” solution that permanently stores data.
Since the launch of the Dencun upgrade, L2 networks like Base, Optimism, and zkSync have experienced a significant drop in transaction fees. Data from Marcov’s Dune-based tracker highlights the substantial decrease in transaction fees across major Ethereum-based L2 networks.
For example, the average transaction fee on Optimism has dropped from $2.44 per hour to $0.068 currently. Similarly, the average transaction cost on Coinbase’s Layer-2 Base has plummeted from $1.212 to $0.196 within the same timeframe. Additionally, zkSync’s average fee has decreased from a daily high of $0.546 to $0.162, while Zora network’s transaction cost has fallen from $0.752 to $0.003.
It is worth noting that this reduction in transaction fees is primarily seen in L2 networks that have implemented blobs. L2 networks that have yet to implement the upgrade have maintained their average transaction costs. For instance, Arbitrum falls into this category, with its average transaction cost fluctuating between $0.65 and $0.84 over the past 24 hours. However, the high fees on Arbitrum will soon be a thing of the past, as the network’s team plans to integrate with Dencun improvements today.
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