Data & Insights: Collapse in ETH Fees; Surge in Onchain Gold

Efeereum

• Ethereum transaction fees have plummeted to multi-year lows, with the 7-day moving average now generating less than $500K daily, a stark contrast to the 12-month peak of $30M observed in March 2024.
  • Despite this dramatic decline in fee revenue, daily transaction volume has remained relatively stable at approximately 1.2 million transactions per day, suggesting a shift in network economics rather than diminished usage.
  • Several network improvements have reduced fees, particularly the implementation of EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) which introduced "blob" transactions, significantly reducing Layer 2 rollup costs by providing cheaper data availability.
  • Layer-2 solutions, particularly Base, have emerged as the go-to for many users attracted by significantly lower costs while still benefiting from Ethereum's security.
• The fee collapse represents a double-edged sword for the Ethereum ecosystem.
  • For users, dramatically lower fees improve accessibility and reduce barriers to entry, potentially expanding Ethereum's utility for everyday transactions and smaller DeFi operations that were previously cost-prohibitive.
  • For validators, however, declining fee revenue raises questions about long-term economic security, as the network increasingly relies on ETH issuance rather than transaction fees to incentivize validation.
• Ethereum's price performance has also struggled amid these efficiency gains, underperforming Bitcoin considerably in 2025.
  • This divergence challenges the narrative that network usage directly correlates with token value, as Ethereum continues to host the majority of stablecoin activity and emerging RWA (Real World Asset) protocols despite price weakness.

Swapping Pumps

• Pump.fun launched its native decentralized exchange PumpSwap on March 20th, marking a strategic shift in how memecoins are traded on Solana. Coins previously graduated to Raydium will now be traded directly through PumpSwap instead.
  • The platform has generated approximately $270 million in volume within its first few days of operation.
  • This new integration eliminates the previous 6 SOL migration fee that users faced when transferring tokens to other exchanges while also introducing the foundation for creator revenue sharing in the future.
• PumpSwap enters a market dominated by established players, with Raydium leading the pack at $13 billion in March volume alone.
  • The combined volume of Solana's top three DEXs - Raydium, Orca, and Meteora reached approximately $37 billion in March, demonstrating the massive potential market that PumpSwap is attempting to penetrate.
  • While PumpSwap's initial volume represents only about 2% of Raydium's March total, the direct integration with Pump.fun's token launchpad creates a compelling user acquisition funnel that could accelerate growth.
• The launch has stirred some controversy within the Solana ecosystem, where established DEXs had previously maintained a relatively stable balance of power.
  • By vertically integrating token creation and trading, Pump.fun is effectively recapturing value that previously flowed to Raydium and other exchanges when new tokens completed their bonding curves.
  • This move follows a common pattern in maturing DeFi ecosystems, where platforms often expand their service offerings to capture more of the user journey and the associated fee revenue.
• The coming months will reveal whether this strategy strengthens Pump.fun's position in the memecoin economy or if established DEXs will respond with competitive measures to retain their market dominance.

DeFi Renaissance’s Quick End

• The total revenue generated by most major DeFi protocols is down significantly in March 2025.
  • Revenue is described as fees accrued to both the protocol itself or its token holders and excludes fees to the supply side.
• Solana-based DeFi protocols, which include Pump.fun, Jito and Raydium, cumulatively generated roughly $42 million worth of revenue in March 2025.
  • March’s figures are down ~55% compared to February’s, and down ~75% from its previous record high in January.
• Over at BNB Chain, Pancakeswap generated just $21 million worth of revenue in March, down 54% month-over-month.
• Meanwhile, Ethereum-based DeFi protocols that have exhibited similar patterns include Ethena, Lido, Aave, Curve, Compound and Sushi.
  • This basket of protocols cumulatively generated just $24.5 million worth of revenue in March 2025, down over 52% and 65% since February and January, respectively.
  • Interestingly, unlike its peers, MakerDAO (or Sky) experienced a MoM increase in its monthly revenue, as it generated $10 million in March 2025, up 11% compared to the previous month.
  • MakerDAO (Sky) is the only protocol out of the 11 mentioned so far to have a positive MoM increase in its revenue.
• The significant falloff in revenue for the wider DeFi sector was likely due to a broader decline in on-chain activity and trading volumes of all major blockchains.
  • This has directly led to similarly poor returns from DeFi tokens in 2025 so far, with GMCI’s DeFi Index, GMDEFI, down 40% on a year-to-date basis.
  • GMCI’s GMDEFI is an index containing tokens of various DeFi projects from multiple chains, including Uniswap, Aave, Jupiter, Ethena, Maker, PancakeSwap and Ethena, among many others.

Open Sea(son)

• At the beginning of 2022, OpenSea’s share of Ethereum NFT marketplace volume stood at a dominating ~97%.
  • Just 2 years later, the platform seemed to have dwindled amid fierce competition as its market share fell to just under 20%, even falling as low as 13% in the summer of 2024.
  • However, in the 10 months since, OpenSea market share of Ethereum NFT marketplace volume steadily climbed and is standing at over 51% as of the time of writing.
• As impressive as this comeback story looks at face value, however, it does not actually tell the whole story.
  • OpenSea’s “comeback” in terms of market share for marketplace volume is less about the OpenSea protocol itself doing well and more so due to its main competitor, Blur, underperforming on a relatively competitive basis.
  • Since its latest peak in December 2024, Blur’s monthly NFT volume has declined consistently every month, with an average monthly rate of decline of 55%.
  • Over the same period, OpenSea’s monthly NFT volume has been more varied. It declined by 48% from December 2024 to January but then increased by 20% in February 2025, likely due to the announcement of its SEA token.
  • It is worth pointing out that both OpenSea and Blur saw similar MoM declines in March 2025, the former with -67% and the latter with -62%.
• In summary, the takeaway is that Ethereum NFT volumes have declined significantly over the last 3 months, with the entire sector performing horribly.
  • OpenSea’s resurgence in terms of market share, while somewhat notable, is likely due to Blur’s competitive relative underperformance and should not mask either platforms’ woes or overemphasize their “wins.”

Gold Blooded

• As Q1 comes to an end, the market capitalization of RWA products with Gold as its underlying asset is up 24% year-to-date (YTD).
  • This figure grew from $1.16 billion at the end of 2024 to $1.44 billion by the end of Q1 2025.
  • This is likely due to both increased demand for on-chain tokenized gold investments, as well as the price of the underlying gold asset itself having performed exceptionally well.
• For reference, the price of gold is up over 20% YTD
  • Over the same period, the price of BTC is down by over 12% while the price of ETH is down by 45%. The S&P500 is also down 5% YTD.
  • Gold has been one of the best-performing assets in the world in 2025, alongside other commodities such as Silver and Copper.
  • These increases in the price of commodities are likely driven by the prospect of US tariffs on imports.
• Meanwhile, out of the $1.44 billion of on-chain Gold-related RWA products, Tether Gold makes up 53% of the total market share, while Paxos Gold makes up the remaining 47%.
  • When looking at the history of their respective dominance throughout the last 3 years since 2022, there have been variations on which protocol has had the edge over the other.
  • Throughout the first 50 days of 2022, Tether Gold had the edge over Paxos Gold with an average market share of 54%.
  • However, from then to September 2023, Paxos Gold took the crown as it averaged a 53.7% market share in this period.
    Tether Gold regained its leading status in September 2023 and has averaged a 55% market share since, with a brief peak of 58% in April 2024.