2026-01-01 11:23:43

Ethereum reaches a milestone in 2025. On-chain transaction volume and DeFi ecosystem market share both hit record highs, which should have been an opportunity for explosive mainnet revenue. But the reality is somewhat disheartening—the mainnet transaction fee income has instead plummeted.

The underlying data is quite interesting. Layer-2 networks generated approximately $129 million in revenue throughout the year, of which only $10 million flowed to the Ethereum mainnet for settlement and security. The remaining $119 million? All pocketed by Layer-2 operators. In other words, Ethereum has foregone over $100 million in potential revenue this year.

This reflects deeper issues of ecosystem fragmentation. While efficient Layer-2 solutions attract a large number of users and transactions, they directly weaken the mainnet's economic incentives. For Ethereum, this is the cost of scaling success—on-chain prosperity, but diluted mainnet revenue. How to balance ecosystem growth with its own incentives in the future may be a key question for the Ethereum ecosystem.

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fren_with_benefits

· 7h ago

Damn, this is awkward. Prosperity is prosperity, but all the money has been siphoned off by L2... Looking at it this way, the ETH mainnet has become the big loser.

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CascadingDipBuyer

· 7h ago

Over 100 million USD was taken by L2, is the ETH mainnet just being exploited like this? L2 happily counting money, while the mainnet gets nothing, this game rule is really ruthless. The cost of scaling victory is money going into other people's pockets, it's really damn heartbreaking. Isn't this just the fate of ETH becoming a settlement layer? We saw through it long ago. The trading volume sold, the fees not collected, it's about right. Layer2 takes off, ETH falls, I understand this show. The mainnet becomes a worker, the real profitable work is all done by L2.

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PriceOracleFairy

· 7h ago

honestly the fee extraction dynamics here are wild... eth mainnet basically got outcompeted on its own network lmao. like you solve scalability and suddenly you're bleeding revenue? that's the classic "victory condition contains the seeds of your own defeat" energy ngl. 1.29B in L2 fees but only 10M trickling back... the arbitrage opportunity eth left on the table is just *chef's kiss* inefficient

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BoredStaker

· 7h ago

Aiou, this is awkward, just an illusion of prosperity --- L2 dad is unfilial, earning a fortune himself, and only throwing a few cents to dad --- Basically, it's about redistributing benefits, otherwise the mainnet will become a second-class citizen --- A hundred million dollars, just floating away, Vitalik needs to think of a way --- This is why I am bearish on Ethereum's long-term narrative; the division is too severe --- Haha, L2s have grown wings and started to abandon their dad --- The problem is, does the mainnet really need to earn so much? Anyway, security is guaranteed

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DefiVeteran

· 7h ago

I mean... the current situation where L2s are eating the meat and the mainnet is drinking the soup is indeed unsustainable. It's like building a super high-speed highway but all the toll booths are leased out to middlemen; Ethereum is taking a bit of a hit in this round.

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