Ethereum has been raking in the dough faster than a DeFi yield farmer during a bull run. According to a new analysis by blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, Ethereum earned a whopping $2.7 billion in fees over the past year. That's right, billion with a "B."

Let's break down this crypto cash cow:

  • Ethereum topped the charts with $2.7 billion in yearly fee revenue
  • Bitcoin came in second, earning $1.3 billion (less than half of Ethereum's haul)
  • Tron took bronze with $459.3 million in fees
  • Seven other chains rounded out the top 10, but none came close to the big E's earnings

Now, you might be thinking, "Isn't Ethereum supposed to be the network where you need to take out a second mortgage just to send a transaction?" Well, you're not wrong. 

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Source: Tenor

Ethereum's had a bit of a reputation for sky-high gas fees. But here's the twist – at the time of writing, the average transaction on Ethereum costs around 5 gwei, or about $0.27.

It's like Ethereum went from being the luxury sports car of blockchains (expensive but fancy) to suddenly becoming the Toyota Corolla (reliable and affordable).

But Ethereum's not the only player in this blockchain fee fiesta. Bitcoin, the OG of cryptocurrencies, managed to pull in $1.3 billion in fees. Then Tron came in third with $459.3 million in fees.

The rest of the top 10 reads like a who's who of the blockchain world.

We've got:

  • Solana, the speed demon of blockchains, earned $241.2 million
  • BSC (Binance Smart Chain), pulling in $176.5 million—not bad for a chain that's essentially Ethereum's copycat cousin. 
  • Avalanche snowballed its way to $68.8 million

Then Layer 2 solutions, zkSync Era and Optimism, earned $59.7 million and $40.4 million, respectively.

And bringing up the rear, we have Polygon with $23.9 million. It might be last on this list, but hey, $23.9 million is nothing to sneeze at.

Now, you might be wondering, "If Ethereum's making all this money from fees, why aren't they charging more?" 

Well, it turns out that Ethereum's been working on its summer bod, trimming down those fees and speeding up transactions.

The recent Dencun upgrade, also known as EIP-4844 or "proto-danksharding" (because apparently, regular names are too mainstream for crypto), has played a big part in this fee fitness program.

Related: Uniswap Plans to Roll Out a New Version Following Ethereum's Dencun Update

The result? Fees have dropped faster than a bear market, and the network can handle more transactions than ever before.

Another major factor that helped Ethereum’s fees is the rise of Layer 2 solutions. These are like the blockchain equivalent of carpool lanes—they help reduce congestion on the main network. 

And just like how more carpool lanes can lead to smoother traffic overall, more Layer 2 activity has helped bring down fees on the main Ethereum network.

All this fee-reducing activity seems to be paying off. Data from DappRadar shows that volume across Ethereum-based decentralized applications (Dapps) surged 300% over the last week to $71.8 billion.

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