Ethereum DApps outperform main chain
Dapps outperform the main chain in Ethereum
Ethereum’s decentralized application (dapp) ecosystem has demonstrated surprising strength in early 2025, generating more than $1 billion in user fees during the first quarter—surpassing the Layer 1 (L1) network’s own fee intake by a factor of five.
Ethereum’s L1 collected $176 million in fees during the same period, underscoring the growing role of off-chain computation and Layer 2 scaling solutions, according to the Cryptopolitan.
Despite a depressed price range, with ETH stabilizing around $1,548, Ethereum’s applications have maintained economic momentum. This activity matches levels seen during more bullish market periods, highlighting the resilience of the platform’s core dapp ecosystem.
At the forefront are decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap, aggregators such as 1inch and CowSwap, and specialized tools like the Banana Gun trading bot.
DEXs and whales fuel the fee machine
Uniswap’s latest iteration, V4, emerged as a top gas consumer, driving up fees primarily through high-volume traders and liquidity providers. Tether’s smart contract also remains among the leading sources of network congestion and gas spending.
While Ethereum's active daily address count hovers around 400,000—consistent with past years—the user base has shifted. Retail activity has waned, particularly around NFTs and meme tokens, while whales and DeFi power users now dominate, generating high transaction volumes even with fewer overall interactions.
Gas fees have dropped to multi-year lows, yet remain above rival chains like Solana, Arbitrum, and BNB Smart Chain. Still, Ethereum continues to command nearly half of all EVM-compatible trading volume, reaffirming its central position in the DeFi landscape.
In a market where user experience and cost drive chain selection, Ethereum’s apps remain a powerful engine—even as its base layer takes a back seat.
Meanwhile, Ethereum validators have recently signaled majority approval for increasing the network’s gas limit, pushing it past 34 million for the first time since 2021.
