Blob fees on Ethereum are essentially free right now. Since EIP-4844 introduced blob-carrying transactions in March 2024, the cost for Layer 2s to post data to Ethereum’s base layer has stayed orders of magnitude cheaper than the old calldata approach. At times in 2025 and into 2026, blobs have cleared for fractions of a cent per transaction batch. Critics framed this as bad news for ETH holders starved of fee revenue. That framing misses what’s actually happening.
L2s Are Scaling, and Ethereum Is the Settlement Rail
Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and a growing cluster of ZK-rollup chains have all seen meaningful throughput increases since blob space became available. Base, operated by Coinbase, has processed sustained daily transaction volumes that rival some of the busiest periods on Ethereum mainnet itself - but settled on Ethereum, not on a competing L1. Every one of those transactions generates a blob, and every blob anchors data availability back to Ethereum.
This is the architecture working as designed. Ethereum’s roadmap explicitly treats the base layer as a settlement and data availability layer, not a consumer transaction processor. Cheap blobs accelerate L2 adoption, which deepens Ethereum’s role as foundational infrastructure.
The Fee Revenue Argument Is Premature
ETH’s deflationary mechanism under EIP-1559 depends on base fee burns. With L2s offloading execution, mainnet base fees have stayed low, and the burn rate is down significantly from the peaks seen during the 2021 NFT cycle. Some ETH holders have noticed this and complained loudly.
But the counter-argument is straightforward: blob capacity is not fully saturated. The Pectra upgrade, which went live in May 2025, increased the target blob count per block. Even at higher throughput, fee pressure on blobs has remained modest. When blob space does saturate - which becomes more plausible as more L2s onboard more users - the fee market will adjust upward automatically.
One Number Worth Watching
Total value secured on Ethereum-native L2s crossed $50 billion in aggregate at points in late 2025. That capital is not sitting on Solana or Avalanche. It’s sitting on chains that route their security guarantees through Ethereum.
The base layer doesn’t need to be expensive to be dominant. It needs to be indispensable - and on that measure, the blob era is working.