Average Ethereum gas fees drop 95% over past year
Ethereum gas fees drop 95% after Dencun upgrade, but ETH price declines.
In a remarkable development for Ethereum users, the network’s average gas fee has dropped by 95% in the year following its March 2024 Dencun upgrade.
The upgrade—combining enhancements from the Cancun execution-layer and Deneb consensus-layer improvements along with nine new EIPs—aimed to boost scalability and reduce transaction costs for layer-2 networks, reports Cointelegraph.
Data from YCharts indicates that gas fees fell from 72 gwei in 2024 to just 2.7 gwei as of March 12, 2025, translating to average swap fees dropping from $86 to $0.39 and NFT sales fees falling from $145 to $0.65.
Ether Price Decline Amid Network Upgrades
Despite the dramatic fee reductions, Ether’s price has taken a significant hit. At the time of the Dencun upgrade, ETH traded above $4,070; however, by March 13, 2025, its value had declined by 53% to approximately $1,891, according to CoinGecko.
Dominik Harz, co-founder of Build on Bitcoin, commented to Cointelegraph that recent price drops wiped out DeFi TVL gains accumulated since President Trump’s election. Harz added that while network upgrades like Dencun have delivered on cost reductions, they have not prevented broader market volatility, underscoring the search for a more sustainable frontier for decentralized finance.
Pectra Upgrade Faces Early Hurdles
Ethereum’s next major upgrade, dubbed Pectra, was deployed on the Sepolia testnet on March 5. Early tests encountered error messages and instances of empty blocks being mined, though a prompt fix by the development team has since stabilized the network.
Pectra is expected to double the available data space for layer-2 solutions, further reduce transaction costs, and enhance execution capacity. However, Harz cautioned that while the upgrade represents progress, it is not a panacea for Ethereum’s deeper issues, as the network continues to face stiff competition from alternative chains.
Recently we wrote, that Ethereum prices have been trapped in consolidation as it struggles to move closer to the $2,000 pivot level.
