Following the Dencun upgrade, the Ethereum Layer-2 network Base witnessed a remarkable surge in daily transactions, reaching a record 2 million on March 16.
Previously, before the upgrade, Base processed approximately 440,000 transactions per day. However, the day after the upgrade, this figure rose to 1.1 million and continued to climb in the subsequent days, peaking at 2,064,920 on March 16.
Additionally, the number of daily new users on Base spiked to 666,866 on March 16, marking a staggering 3,200% increase compared to the average in the days leading up to Dencun.
This significant increase in transactions has been attributed to a substantial reduction in fees for Base following the Dencun upgrade. On average, transaction fees on Base have plummeted by more than 60% since the upgrade, as reported by Blockscout.
Launched by Coinbase in August, Base currently ranks as the sixth-largest network in the Ethereum Layer-2 ecosystem, boasting a total value locked of $1.46 billion and commanding a 4.1% market share of Layer 2s, according to L2Beat.
The Ethereum Dencun upgrade implemented Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844, which slashed Layer-2 transaction fees by introducing data blobs or proto-danksharding. This upgrade improved L2 data availability, leading to gas cost reductions of up to 90% for some networks.
According to Dune, average transaction fees on leading Layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and zkSync Era dropped by between 60% and 90% following the upgrade.
Despite the fee reductions, Arbitrum and Optimism continue to dominate the Layer-2 ecosystem, boasting a combined total value locked of $23 billion and capturing market shares of 42% and 23%, respectively.
Gas fees for token swaps on Uniswap’s Optimism deployment plummeted to as low as $0.01 post-Dencun, as highlighted by protocol founder Hayden Adams.
Trading in Uniswap on Optimism now costs less than $0.01 in gas
Let’s fucking go, we’re scaling ethereum
Huge shoutout to everyone involved in shipping Dencun pic.twitter.com/CDmWEvS8LW
— hayden.eth 🦄 (@haydenzadams) March 14, 2024
In contrast, Ethereum Layer-1 gas fees have remained elevated, particularly as the asset surged past $4,000 before experiencing a subsequent decline. Presently, an ETH transfer costs around $2.1, while a USDС transfer is approximately $5, and a Uniswap swap totals around $16, according to Gasfees.io.
