In-Depth Analysis: The Revenue Sustainability of Three Major Public Chains — Ethereum, Solana, and Tron
Introduction
In today’s rapidly evolving blockchain landscape, the revenue sustainability of public chains has become a crucial indicator of their long-term growth potential. This report focuses on three leading public chains in the current market — Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. Through an analysis of their gas fee revenue structure, on-chain economic activities, and the sustainability of user income and expenditure, we delve into the revenue models and sustainability of these public chains.
According to the latest data from DefiLlama, over the past 30 days, Ethereum leads the pack with a total of $99.89 million in gas fees, followed by Solana and Tron, which generated $46.21 million and $38.97 million in gas fees, respectively. However, this revenue advantage is not entirely reflected in market popularity and user activity. Notably, Solana has surpassed Ethereum in discussion volume over the past six months, while Tron has gained widespread recognition in the payment sector due to its low transaction fees.
What’s more intriguing is the stark difference between gas fee revenues and the number of daily active addresses: Tron leads with 2.1 million daily active addresses, followed by Solana with 1.1 million, while Ethereum has only 316,000. This phenomenon highlights the complex relationship between gas fee revenue structure, on-chain economic activity, and the sustainability of user income and expenditure, offering a unique perspective for analyzing the revenue sustainability of these three public chains.
This report will provide an in-depth analysis of the revenue composition of Ethereum, Solana, and Tron, exploring their long-term growth potential and revenue sustainability.
Ethereum
Gas Fee Revenue Structure
Ethereum has undergone a series of significant upgrades, including the transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) and the implementation of the EIP-1559 proposal, which have profoundly impacted its gas fee structure. The new gas fee structure is divided into two components: the Base Fee, which is automatically burned by the system, and Tips, which are directly paid to validators. The burn mechanism of the Base Fee is expected to drive ETH into a deflationary state, potentially increasing its value. Additionally, the dynamically adjusted Base Fee helps optimize the allocation of network resources, while Tips provide additional incentives to validators, thus maintaining network security. This dual structure not only diversifies validators’ revenue sources, reducing reliance on new coin issuance, but also creates long-term deflationary potential for ETH through the Base Fee burn mechanism. Overall, these changes aim to enhance the economic sustainability and long-term value proposition of the Ethereum network.
In the past 30 days, Ethereum has burned approximately $47 million worth of ETH through the Base Fee mechanism. This figure not only reflects the network’s level of activity but also provides a critical basis for analyzing the contribution of various on-chain activities to total gas consumption, helping to deepen the understanding of the economic impact of different applications and transaction types within the Ethereum ecosystem. The primary contributors to the burn amount are shown in the chart below.
The distribution of gas fee consumption on the Ethereum network reflects its ecosystem’s vibrancy and the flow of economic value. According to the gas fee burn ratio shown in the chart, we can clearly identify the dominant application categories on the Ethereum mainnet and their relative importance. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) leads with a 60% share, highlighting its central role in the Ethereum ecosystem. Following DeFi are ETH transfers (12%), MEV (Maximum Extractable Value, 8%), and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens, 8%). These four categories collectively contribute 88% of the total gas consumption, forming the core economic activities on the Ethereum network. Layer 2 solutions (6%) and smart contract creation (2%) account for smaller shares, reflecting that the development of the Ethereum ecosystem is currently in a “low period.”
Despite the Ethereum network currently being in a relatively low period, its gas fee consumption distribution still presents a diversified ecosystem landscape. DeFi dominates, supplemented by ETH transfers, MEV, and NFTs, showcasing the network’s sustained vitality and broad application scenarios, laying a solid foundation for the value growth of the Ethereum network.
On-Chain Economic Activities
DeFi
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) serves as the backbone of the Ethereum ecosystem, covering a diverse array of sub-sectors such as decentralized exchanges (DEX), lending platforms, DEX trading bots, stablecoins, derivatives, crypto wallets, and liquid staking derivatives (LSD), among others.
An in-depth analysis of Ethereum’s gas burn details reveals that sectors like DEX, stablecoins, DEX trading bots, and crypto wallets are prominent in terms of gas consumption, occupying top positions. This prominence underscores the dominant role and high user activity within these sub-sectors in the current DeFi ecosystem.
Uniswap (DEX)
Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) in the Ethereum ecosystem, not only offers users efficient on-chain spot trading services but also acts as a fundamental infrastructure for the DeFi ecosystem, meeting the essential transaction demands of the blockchain network.
In the past 30 days, Uniswap generated $54.23 million in revenue, with $8.15 million contributed to gas fees burned, accounting for approximately 17.3% of the total within the Ethereum ecosystem. Statistical data (Figure 1–2) shows that the top trading pairs by volume on Uniswap primarily consist of ETH and stablecoins, with highly speculative meme token trades constituting a minimal portion of the overall transaction volume. This indicates a healthy ecosystem on the platform, driven predominantly by standard trading activities.
1inch (DEX)
1inch, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator in the Ethereum ecosystem, aggregates liquidity pools from multiple DEXs to offer users the most optimal trading routes and prices, particularly showcasing unique advantages in niche token trading.
1inch contributed approximately $1.21 million to gas fees within the Ethereum ecosystem, accounting for about 3% of the total gas fees burned.
The entire DEX sector represents over 40% of the DeFi field and more than 25% of the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting the DEX’s status as the most active sector on Ethereum. Mainstream DEX projects primarily focus on standard trading activities, with minimal involvement in meme tokens, reflecting a healthy ecosystem. Despite being the largest sector, DEX only accounts for 25% of the Ethereum ecosystem, demonstrating a balanced distribution of gas fees.
Stablecoin Transfers
Stablecoin transfers, a key indicator of the chain’s prosperity, rank second only to DEXs in the Ethereum ecosystem. They play a role similar to fiat currency in on-chain transactions, providing a pricing benchmark for other tokens. Due to their ease of transaction and low slippage, stablecoins have become the preferred intermediary for on-chain token trades, mainly composed of industry-leading stablecoins USDT and USDC, effectively reflecting the demand for capital and activity within the Ethereum ecosystem.
In the past month, stablecoin transfers on the Ethereum network burned $4.01 million in gas fees, accounting for about 8.5% of the total gas fees burned during the same period. This data not only reflects strong demand for capital on-chain but also underscores the importance of stablecoin transfers in assessing the long-term development potential of a public chain. Stablecoin transfers are directly linked to whether a public chain has sufficient capital and user base. Ethereum’s strong performance in this metric further confirms its leading position and ongoing growth momentum in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Dex Trading Bots
The rise of DEX trading bots stems from the popularity of meme coins. These bots are automated trading tools designed for DEX traders, mainly used to facilitate the purchase of meme coins. With the surge of meme coin projects, the market has become highly volatile with short life cycles — some lasting less than 10 minutes. This volatility increases the difficulty of trading, where a few seconds’ difference in buying timing can determine profit or loss. As a result, many traders use DEX trading bots to gain an advantage at the opening of meme coin trading. This process not only generates a significant amount of gas fees but also involves a considerable portion of bribe fees, aimed at incentivizing blockchain miners to prioritize their transactions, thus securing a leading edge in meme coin trading.
As shown in Figure 1–3, DEX trading bot projects (primarily Banana Gun and Maestro) rank third in gas fee contributions, following Uniswap and Ethereum/stablecoin transfers.
Banana Gun, a cross-chain compatible DEX trading bot project, is primarily active on the Ethereum network. Over the past 30 days, it contributed a substantial $1.73 million in gas fees, not only ranking first among all DEX trading bot projects but also accounting for 3.68% of the total gas fees within the entire Ethereum ecosystem. This highlights its dominant position in the automated trading tool sector.
Maestro, another multi-chain compatible DEX trading bot project with Ethereum as its primary application platform, generated $1.51 million in gas fees over the past 30 days. It ranks second among DEX trading bot projects and represents 3.21% of the total gas fees in the Ethereum ecosystem, underscoring its significant influence on the automated trading market.
The significant standing of the DEX trading bot sector within the Ethereum ecosystem, contributing approximately 6.9% of the total gas fees (ranking third overall), reflects its importance. The clear dominance of top projects (with Banana Gun and Maestro accounting for over 90% of the market share) not only showcases the concentration in this sector but also indirectly mirrors the moderate enthusiasm for meme coin trading on Ethereum. This balance effectively meets trading demands while avoiding excessive speculation that could negatively impact the broader ecosystem. This equilibrium supports the healthy development of the Ethereum ecosystem by preventing undue speculative activities from overshadowing legitimate projects.
Cryptocurrency Wallets
Wallets serve as the foundational infrastructure for user activity on public blockchains. The gas fees generated by wallets not only reflect the actual user activity on the chain but also serve as a critical indicator of the health of the blockchain ecosystem. According to the data (Figure 1–4), MetaMask, currently the most widely used on-chain wallet project, leads the Ethereum ecosystem. Over the past 30 days, MetaMask contributed $2.91 million in gas fees, burning $940,000 of it, which accounts for about 2% of the total gas fees on the Ethereum network. This underscores the significant role that wallets play within the public blockchain ecosystem.
On-Chain Transfers
On-chain transfers within the Ethereum network represent the second most significant on-chain activity. Over the past month, these transfers have burned approximately $3.83 million in gas fees, contributing an estimated total of $25.5 million in gas fees, which accounts for about 12% of the total gas fees within the Ethereum ecosystem. This highlights the crucial role of on-chain transfers in the ETH ecosystem and the strong demand from users.
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value)
MEV is a phenomenon unique to the blockchain transaction processing phase, where users pay extra fees to expedite their transactions. On Ethereum, the base fee is burned while the miner’s tip goes directly to the miner. This mechanism has become more pronounced since the implementation of the EIP-1559 upgrade. Excessive MEV demand often indicates unhealthy ecosystem development, particularly in the context of meme coin projects. Due to the time-sensitive nature of these projects, users frequently increase MEV fees to gain an advantage, making the level of MEV fees a potential indirect indicator of meme coin activity on the chain. The burned MEV fees on the Ethereum network amount to approximately $3.76 million, accounting for 8% of the total burned fees on the chain. This data suggests that meme coin activities are not dominant within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Summary of the Ethereum Ecosystem
The Ethereum ecosystem exhibits a diversified development pattern, with a focus on a few key areas. The DeFi sector leads with a significant 60% share of gas fees, underscoring its central role, while its internal sub-sectors are well-distributed. Following DeFi are ETH transfers (12%), MEV (8%), and NFTs (8%), together constituting 88% of the total gas consumption. The sub-sectors burning the most gas fees are DEX (26%), on-chain transfers and stablecoins (17%), DEX trading bots (7%), and wallets (3%), collectively accounting for 53%. Layer 2 solutions (6%) and smart contract creation (2%) hold smaller shares, indicating that the ecosystem may be in a “low phase” of development. Despite this, the distribution of gas fees reflects a relatively balanced development across Ethereum’s sectors, with no single sector dominating excessively, demonstrating the overall health of the ecosystem.
Solana
Fee Structure
On the Solana blockchain, fees and costs are divided into three components:
- Transaction Fees: Fees paid to validators for processing transactions/commands.
- Priority Fees: Optional fees paid to expedite transaction processing.
- Rent: Fees for maintaining data storage on the blockchain.
Solana’s protocol stipulates that a fixed proportion of each transaction fee (initially 50%) is burned, while the remaining 50% is allocated to validators. Over the past 30 days, Solana stakers have earned transaction fee rewards valued at $23.1 million.
The popularity of meme coin projects on Solana has led to highly time-sensitive transactions, prompting users to significantly increase priority fees to gain an advantage. This has substantially boosted the income from fees and bribes for Solana stakers.
Interaction Volume Distribution
The interaction volume on the Solana chain directly reflects the frequency of on-chain transactions, which is closely related to Solana’s fee revenue. According to Figure 2–1, the activity distribution on the Solana blockchain is as follows:
- DEX (Decentralized Exchanges): Dominates with an 86% share.
- Launchers (potentially referring to token issuance or other specific functions): Account for 4%.
- Other Activities: Represent 10%.
DEX activities play a central role in the Solana ecosystem, showcasing their dominance and significance in driving on-chain interactions.
On-Chain Economic Activities
DEX
According to Figure 2–2, Raydium and Orca together account for 70% of the decentralized exchange (DEX) activity on the Solana chain, making them the primary hubs for on-chain interactions.
Raydium, the largest decentralized exchange in the Solana ecosystem, generated $52.37 million in transaction fees over the past 30 days. Figure 2–3 shows that its revenue primarily comes from meme coin trading pairs, highlighting the dominant role of speculative meme coin trading in the current Solana DeFi market and its significant contribution to the platform’s revenue.
Orca, the second-largest decentralized exchange in the Solana ecosystem, generated $12.25 million in transaction fees over the past 30 days. Over 50% of its revenue came from meme coin trading pairs, reflecting the ongoing influence of speculative meme coin trading in the Solana DeFi market and its significant contribution to the platform’s revenue.
Recent data from the Solana ecosystem shows that the DEX sector accounts for 86% of on-chain interaction volume and is estimated to contribute over 80% of transaction fees. Within the DEX market, Raydium and Orca hold a combined 70% share. Notably, meme coin trading represents approximately 90% of activity on Raydium and over 60% on Orca, suggesting that meme coin trading contributes over 55% of the total gas fees in the Solana ecosystem. Specifically, of the $46.21 million in gas fees earned by Solana in the past 30 days, approximately $30 million came from meme coin trading.
While meme coin trading has boosted on-chain activity and revenue in the short term, it is inherently speculative and continuously extracts funds from participants. Therefore, despite the impressive data, we believe that this meme coin-driven development model lacks sustainability. The Solana ecosystem urgently needs to seek a more balanced and healthy growth path.
MEV
The Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) mechanism on the Solana chain, driven by the surge in meme coin trading demand, has become a prominent feature of on-chain transactions.
In the past 30 days, transactions with priority fees (MEV) accounted for 82.45% of the total transaction volume on the Solana chain, indicating that the majority of transactions utilized the MEV mechanism. MEV fees represent 80% of the transaction fees, highlighting their significant role in the Solana ecosystem. Specifically, Solana’s total fee income over the past 30 days was $46.21 million, with MEV fees exceeding $30 million.
These figures further confirm the dominant position of meme coin trading in the current Solana ecosystem and reflect the extensive use of the MEV mechanism by users seeking to gain an advantage in meme coin transactions.
Dex Trading Bot
Based on the analysis of Dex Trading Bot trading volumes, the top three projects account for over 90% of the trading share on the Solana chain:
- Photon: $18.96 million in revenue over the past 30 days.
- Bonkbot: $3.35 million in revenue over the past 30 days.
- Trojan: $11.36 million in revenue over the past 30 days.
- Total Revenue for Dex Trading Bots on Solana (30 Days): Approximately $33.67 million.
This data highlights the significant role Dex Trading Bots play in Solana’s ecosystem, particularly in the meme coin sector, reflecting their dominant position in transaction volume and revenue generation.
Solana Ecosystem Summary
On the Solana chain, approximately 80% of transaction activities are driven by meme coin trading. Here’s a breakdown of the costs and losses associated with meme coin trading on Solana:
- MEV Priority Fees: $30 million
- Dex Trading Bot Usage Fees: $30 million
- DEX Trading Fees: $50 million
- Estimated Monthly Losses for Meme Coin Traders: $110 million
Based on this data, Solana’s reliance on a meme coin-driven ecosystem presents significant sustainability risks. Although meme coin trading has generated substantial on-chain activity and revenue for Solana in the short term, this model imposes a significant economic burden on participants. The monthly loss of over $100 million, which annualizes to $1.3 billion, underscores the unsustainability of the current model.
Meme coin projects inherently lack long-term value support and their prosperity largely depends on continuous capital inflows and user participation. However, as participant losses accumulate, sustaining market enthusiasm may become challenging. The Solana ecosystem faces severe challenges and needs to seek a more balanced and sustainable development path. Reducing dependence on single, high-risk sectors and fostering applications and projects that create long-term value is essential to ensure the ecosystem’s healthy development and long-term prosperity.
Participants and decision-makers within the Solana ecosystem should carefully evaluate the current development model, strategize to reduce reliance on meme coin trading, and actively explore and support projects with substantial value and long-term development potential to build a more robust and sustainable blockchain ecosystem.
Tron
Tron’s unique design involves handling transaction fees primarily to cover network energy and bandwidth consumption, rather than compensating node bribery. Specifically:
- Energy Fee: This fee is used to cover the computational resources required for processing and validating transactions.
- Bandwidth Fee: This fee is used to propagate transaction data across the blockchain network.
When users lack sufficient bandwidth or energy, they need to burn TRX to pay for transaction resources, which contributes to TRX’s deflationary mechanism.
Figure 3–1 indicates that since October 29, 2021, TRX has experienced a continuous deflationary trend. This phenomenon is largely attributed to the extensive use of USDT on the Tron network and the significant increase in its transaction volume. The ongoing expansion of stablecoin transfers strongly supports TRX’s deflationary mechanism, ensuring the sustainability of TRX’s economic model.
Figure 3–2 shows that as of July 22, 2024, USDT transfers account for 94.51% of the activity on the Tron network, highlighting its dominant role within the Tron ecosystem. Tron’s design advantages — including a fixed low transfer fee of 1 TRX (regardless of the amount), a rapid block time of 3 seconds (compared to Ethereum’s 16 seconds), and no additional priority fees — give it a significant competitive edge in the blockchain payment sector. These features not only meet market demands for efficient and cost-effective payment solutions but also validate Tron’s initial positioning as a payment blockchain.
These advantages effectively attract a substantial number of users, particularly in the stablecoin transfer scenario, leading to sustained growth in on-chain activities and reinforcing Tron’s key position in digital payment infrastructure.
The daily transaction volume on the Tron network has shown a strong growth trend, particularly since the beginning of 2024. This growth reflects the expansion of the Tron ecosystem and increased user adoption. Between July and August 2024, transaction volumes reached new highs, frequently exceeding 8 million transactions, with peaks approaching 9 million. This surge can be attributed to the extension of the Meme token speculation craze to the Tron blockchain.
In August 2024, Tron founder Justin Sun strategically announced a push into the Meme token sector, which quickly attracted numerous Meme projects to the Tron ecosystem. Data as of August 20, 2024, reveals a significant shift in the energy consumption structure on the Tron network. While USDT transfers remain the largest activity, their share has decreased to 52%, while decentralized exchange (DEX) activities have surged from 3% to 47%. This shift indicates that the influx of Meme projects has led to a notable increase in on-chain activity in the short term, reflecting the early success of Sun’s strategic move and suggesting a potential structural transformation within the Tron ecosystem.
Despite the decrease in the share of USDT transfers, the actual energy consumption related to USDT transfers remains stable, maintaining a range of 80 billion to 90 billion TRX. This stability highlights that while the introduction of Meme projects has significantly boosted on-chain activity, it has not materially impacted Tron’s core business — USDT transfers. This underscores the importance of USDT transfers as a fundamental user need and confirms its role as a cornerstone of the Tron ecosystem. The observed resilience implies that even if the Meme token craze diminishes, the core operations and stability of the Tron ecosystem are expected to remain robust.
Although Tron’s transaction fee revenue is highly concentrated in USDT transfers, this concentration reflects the stable demand for stablecoin transfers. The substantial revenue from stablecoin transactions not only highlights the heavy reliance of users on the Tron network but also confirms the health and sustainability of the Tron ecosystem’s fee structure.
Summary
This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the revenue composition and sustainability of the three major public blockchains: Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. The key conclusions are as follows:
Ethereum: Exhibits the Most Balanced and Sustainable Development Model
- Diverse Revenue Sources: Ethereum demonstrates a well-balanced revenue structure with significant contributions from DeFi (60%), ETH transfers (12%), MEV (8%), and NFTs (8%).
- Healthy Ecosystem: Core applications such as DEX and stablecoin transfers have a reasonable share, reflecting genuine and sustained user demand.
- Innovation and Upgrades: Upgrades like EIP-1559 enhance the fee mechanism and create long-term value through ETH burn.
- Long-Term Potential: Ethereum’s diverse application scenarios and continuous technological innovation provide a robust foundation for long-term growth.
Solana: Rapid Growth with Sustainability Challenges
- High Revenue Concentration: Revenue is heavily concentrated with DEX activities accounting for 86%, and Meme token transactions contributing over 55% of the Gas fees.
- Prevalence of MEV: MEV is used in 82.45% of transactions, indicating a high level of speculative activity.
- High User Costs: Meme token users face estimated monthly losses of $110 million, which annualizes to $1.3 billion.
- Sustainability Risks: The model’s heavy reliance on Meme token trading presents significant long-term risks and requires strategic adjustments for sustainable development.
Tron: Focused on Payment Domain with Unique Advantages
- Dominance of Stablecoins: USDT transfers dominate Tron’s activities, accounting for 94.51%, highlighting its strong position in the payment sector.
- Technical Advantages: Features such as low fees, fast confirmations, and a fixed transaction fee model make Tron well-suited for large-scale payment applications.
- Structural Resilience: Core USDT transfer activities remain stable even amidst the Meme token craze, indicating structural resilience.
- Long-Term Sustainability: The stablecoin-based revenue model provides a reliable long-term income source for Tron.
Overall Assessment
- Ethereum stands out with its diversified ecosystem and ongoing technological advancements, showcasing the strongest long-term sustainability.
- Solana, despite its rapid growth, faces major risks due to its over-reliance on Meme token trading and requires strategic transformation for long-term viability.
- Tron has established a unique market position and a sustainable revenue model by focusing on payment solutions, particularly stablecoin transfers.
