Which Blockchains Earn the Most Fees?

Ethereum earned the most fees among all blockchains in 2024, generating an annual total of $2.48 billion from gas fees. Tron emerged as the second highest earning blockchain

Layer 1 (L1) and layer 2 (L2) blockchains collectively earned over $6.89 billion from transaction fees in 2024, according to a recent study by CoinGecko.

Of the total, L1s recorded $6.60 billion in fees earned across 21 blockchains and L2s earned $294.92 million across 12 blockchains.

Ethereum (ETH) emerged as the top fee-earning blockchain, generating an annual total of $2.48 billion from gas fees. Tron (TRX) followed closely behind with $2.15 billion in total annual fees.

This means that on a daily average basis, Ethereum earned $6.79 million a day and Tron earned $5.89 million daily in fees last year.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) followed further behind with $922.89 million and $750.65 million in annual fees respectively.

BNB Chain (BNB) was the only other blockchain to earn in the hundreds of millions, with $194.78 million in annual fees.

Interestingly, 4 out of the top 10 highest earning blockchains are layer 2s — namely Base, Arbitrum, Linea and Optimism — which overtook other layer 1s including TON in annual fees earned last year.

Ethereum’s $2.48 billion fee earnings in 2024 represent a 3.0% increase from the $2.41 billion fees it earned in 2023.

Despite the Dencun upgrade in March 2024 that reduced L2 transaction costs and the ongoing user migration from the L1 chain to its L2 scaling solutions, Ethereum has continued to lead in fee earnings.

Ethereum’s resilient fee earnings also come in contrast to the price performance of ETH, which fell below expectations last year.

The amount of fees earned by Ethereum have fluctuated from month to month. In 2023, Ethereum earned between $91.22 million and $448.70 million per month, recording higher fee earnings during the memecoin mania in May and year-end market rally. The range widened in 2024 with Ethereum earning between $62.82 million and $606.77 million per month.

Notably, Ethereum earned $1.17 billion in Q1 2024 alone, which accounted for almost half of its total fee earnings for the year. This was also Ethereum’s highest earning quarter in the last two years, driven by increased onchain activity amid widespread airdrop programs.

Tron achieved a significant 116.7% increase in fee earnings last year, from $922.08 million in 2023 to the $2.15 billion earned in 2024.

As one of the largest blockchains for stablecoins, accelerating stablecoin usage has fueled steady growth in Tron’s monthly fee earnings, from $38.36 million in January 2023 to a high of $342.54 million in December 2024.

Tron has outpaced Ethereum with higher fee earnings in the last six consecutive months, however it remains to be seen whether Tron will be able to surpass Ethereum as the top fee-earning blockchain this year.

Solana saw an even larger jump of 2,838.0% in its annual fee earnings, from just $25.55 million in 2023 to the $750.65 million recorded in 2024.

Solana was by far the most popular blockchain ecosystem last year, with transaction volume surging to the point of network congestion in April 2024.

Unlike Tron, Solana’s monthly fee earnings remained flat throughout 2023 and experienced a more erratic rise in 2024, from $15.54 million in January to a high of $197.50 in November, then moderating to $120.95 million in December.

In comparison, Bitcoin’s 15.9% growth in annual fee earnings and BNB Chain’s 8.7% growth were much more modest, but still outpaced Ethereum’s 3.0%.

Bitcoin has seen its fee earning ability strengthen in recent years, driven by increased activity from Ordinal NFTs, BRC-20 and Rune tokens, as well as rapidly growing interest to build on Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, TON ranked as the 10th highest fee-earning blockchain, with $35.28 million in annual fees earned last year.

This comes after popular messaging app Telegram officially integrated TON, enabling more accessible onchain interactions such as tap-to-earn blockchain games.

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