Ethereum network fees plunge 62%… base-layer slowdown persists amid L2 expansion

Ethereum (ETH)'s base-layer fees have fallen 62% over the past month. With trading volume and TVL weakening together, Layer 2 expansion has become prominent, deepening the dispersion of on-chain demand.

On the 9th (local time), Cointelegraph reported that Ethereum recently rose to about 3333 dollars, approaching the 3400-dollar level in three weeks. The outlet cited Nansen data saying Ethereum's 30-day cumulative network fees decreased by 62%. Over the same period, Tron, Solana and HyperEVM's fee declines were about 22%.

By contrast, the Ethereum Layer 2 expansion ecosystem showed clear growth. Base's transaction count increased by 108% and Polygon rose by 81%. Cointelegraph mentioned that the December 3 Fusaka upgrade, aimed at improving the efficiency of Ethereum-based rollups, may have partly contributed to the fee decline.

In derivatives markets, the annualized funding rate for Ethereum perpetual futures has recently remained around 9%. Generally moving between 6% and 12%, this indicator is interpreted as a sign that leveraged long and short positions are in balance. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that layoffs in October totaled 1.85 million people, the highest since 2023.

On-chain activity also continued on a weak trend. According to DeFiLlama data, the seven-day trading volume of Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges was 13.4 billion dollars, down from 23.6 billion dollars four weeks earlier. Over the same period, dApp revenue was 12.3 million dollars, marking a five-month low, and the TVL of major protocols such as Pendle, Athena, Morpho and Spark also fell.

Ethereum-based layer TVL recently stood at 76 billion dollars, down from 100 billion dollars two months ago. However, the ecosystem's TVL share remains about 68%, and Solana is below 10%.