Ethereum revenue and network fees continue to dwindle, prompting debate about the layer-1 blockchain network’s financial fundamentals.
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Ethereum revenue, the share of network fees that accrue to Ether () holders as a result of token burns, dropped by about 44% in August, even amid all-time high ETH prices.
Revenue for August totaled over $14.1 million, down from July’s $25.6 million, to Token Terminal. The drop occurred since April and ETH hitting an all-time high of $4,957 on August 24.
Network fees also dropped by about 20% month-over-month, falling from about $49.6 million in July to about $39.7 million in August.
Monthly Ethereum network fees following the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which significantly lowered transaction fees for layer-2 scaling networks using Ethereum as a base layer to post transactions.
The network’s dwindling fees and revenues have sparked about the viability of Ethereum, with critics saying that the layer-1 smart contract platform has unsustainable fundamentals and proponents arguing that it is the backbone of the future financial system.
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The Ethereum network has had an eventful 2025, as the community firms and ETH public treasury companies emerge, driving up ETH prices to all-time highs.
Etherealize, an advocacy and public relations firm that markets the Ethereum network to publicly traded companies, that it completed a in September.
Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer (CIO) at investment firm Bitwise, told Cointelegraph that institutional and traditional financial investors are .
“If you take $1 billion of ETH and you put it into a company and you stake it, all of a sudden, you’re generating earnings. And investors are really used to companies that generate earnings,” Hougan said.
These firms are — locking up their ETH tokens to secure the network — earning a yield for providing validation services to the layer-1 blockchain smart contract platform.
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