Since March 2024, revenue of the Ethereum mainnet dropped by 99%, while monthly user activity on L2 protocols doubled, with analysts linking these processes.
On September 1, Ethereum’s mainnet revenue was about $194,700, making a six-month low, Token Terminal reports. During this period, daily revenue for Ethereum’s L1 network fell by 99%. For comparison, on March 5, mainnet’s revenue stood at $35.5 million.
The decline in L1 network revenue coincided with the significant development of the Ethereum ecosystem, especially in L2 and L3 solutions. According to L2Beat, there are currently 74 L2 protocols and 21 L3 protocols in operation. Data from Token Terminal shows that over the last six months, the monthly number of active users and daily transactions processed by L2 protocols doubled.
The transition in activity from the Ethereum mainnet to Layer 2 solutions began after the successful Dencun upgrade, which took place on March 13, 2024. One of the key goals of the upgrade was to reduce transaction fees for L2 networks. Following this, the total number of daily active addresses on the six largest Layer 2 protocols increased by 127% in H1 2024.
However, the economic impact of reduced activity on the Ethereum mainnet has yet to be assessed. At the beginning of this year, analysts predicted that Ethereum’s total revenue could exceed $1 billion in 2024.
