Depth Analysis: The Income Sustainability of the Three Major Public Chains: Ethereum, Solana, and Tron

Introduction

In today's rapidly developing blockchain technology, the revenue sustainability of public chains has become a key indicator for assessing their long-term development potential. This report focuses on the three major mainstream public chains in the current market - Ethereum (, Solana, and Tron ), analyzing their Gas fee revenue composition, on-chain economic activities, and the sustainability of user income and expenditures, to deeply explore the revenue models and sustainability of these public chains.

According to the latest data, over the past 30 days, Ethereum has led with a total of $99.89 million in Gas fees, followed closely by Solana and Tron with $46.21 million and $38.97 million in Gas fees, respectively. However, this revenue advantage has not been fully reflected in market popularity and user activity. It is noteworthy that discussions around Solana have surpassed those of Ethereum in the past six months, while Tron has gained widespread recognition in the payment sector due to its low transaction fees.

What is more striking is that the daily active address data shows a starkly different pattern from Gas fee revenue: TRON ranks first with 2.1 million daily active addresses, followed closely by Solana with 1.1 million, while Ethereum has only 316,000. This phenomenon highlights the complex relationship between the composition of Gas fee revenue, on-chain economic activities, and the sustainability of user income and expenditure, providing us with a unique perspective for in-depth analysis of the revenue sustainability of these three major public chains.

This report will conduct a deep analysis of the revenue composition of Ethereum, Solana, and TRON, exploring their long-term development potential and revenue sustainability.

Ethereum

( Gas fee income composition

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 has had a profound impact on its gas fee structure. The new gas fee structure is divided into two parts: the base fee ) Base Fee ( that is automatically burned by the system and the tips ) Tips ( that are paid directly to validators. The burning mechanism of the base fee is expected to drive ETH into a deflationary state, potentially increasing its value. At the same time, the dynamically adjusted base fee helps optimize network resource allocation, while tips provide additional incentives for validators to maintain network security. This dual structure not only diversifies the income sources for validators and reduces reliance on new coin issuance but also creates long-term deflationary potential for ETH through the base fee burning mechanism. Overall, this series of changes aims 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 )Base Fee(. This data not only reflects the activity level of the network but also provides an important basis for analyzing the contribution ratio of various on-chain activities to total Gas consumption, helping to gain insights into the economic impact of different applications and transaction types within the Ethereum ecosystem.

The distribution of Gas fee consumption on the Ethereum network reflects the activity level of its ecosystem and the flow of economic value. According to statistical data, we can clearly identify the dominant application categories on the Ethereum main chain and their relative importance. Decentralized Finance ) DeFi ( leads with a 60% share, highlighting its core position in the Ethereum ecosystem. Following closely are ETH transfers ) at 12% (, MEV ) (Maximum Extractable Value) at 8% (, and NFTs ) (Non-Fungible Tokens) at 8% (. These four categories together contribute to 88% of the total Gas consumption, forming the main economic activities of the Ethereum network. Layer 2 solutions ) account for 6% ( and smart contract creation ) accounts for 2% (, indicating that the development of the Ethereum ecosystem is currently in a "low valley period."

Despite the fact that the Ethereum network is currently in a relatively low period, its Gas fee consumption distribution still shows a diversified ecological pattern, dominated by DeFi, supplemented by ETH transfers, MEV, and multiple other fields, demonstrating the network's ongoing vitality and wide range of application scenarios, laying a solid foundation for the value growth of the Ethereum network.

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) On-chain economic activities

(# DeFi

Decentralized Finance ) DeFi ### is a core component of the Ethereum ecosystem, covering a diverse range of segments, including Decentralized Exchanges ### DEX (, lending platforms, DEX trading bots, stablecoins, derivatives, crypto wallets, and liquid staking derivatives ) LSD (, among others.

Through an in-depth analysis of Ethereum Gas burn details, we observed that sectors such as DEX, stablecoins, DEX trading bots, and crypto wallets performed prominently in terms of Gas consumption, occupying top positions in the rankings. This reflects the dominant position and user activity of these sub-sectors in the current DeFi ecosystem.

)## Uniswap(DEX)

Uniswap, as the largest decentralized exchange in the Ethereum ecosystem ### DEX (, not only provides users with efficient on-chain spot trading services but also serves as the infrastructure for decentralized finance ) DeFi ( ecosystem, meeting the rigid demands on the blockchain network.

Uniswap's revenue in the past 30 days is $54.23 million, of which the contributed gas fees for burning are $8.15 million, accounting for approximately 17.3% of the Ethereum ecosystem. Statistics show that the trading pairs with the highest trading volume on Uniswap are mainly composed of ETH and stablecoins, while speculative Meme token trading accounts for a very low proportion of the overall trading composition. This phenomenon highlights a healthy ecosystem dominated by normal trading behavior on the platform.

)## 1inch(DEX)

1inch, as a leading decentralized exchange ### DEX ( aggregator in the Ethereum ecosystem, provides users with the optimal trading paths and prices by integrating the liquidity pools of multiple DEXs, showcasing unique advantages especially in trading niche tokens.

1inch contributed approximately $1.21 million in Gas fees within the Ethereum ecosystem, accounting for 3% of the total.

The entire DEX sector accounts for over 40% in the DeFi space, and over 25% in the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting the status of DEX as the most active sector in Ethereum. Mainstream DEX projects focus primarily on regular trading and rarely involve Meme tokens, reflecting a healthy ecosystem composition. Although the DEX sector has the highest proportion, it only occupies 25% of the Ethereum ecosystem, demonstrating a reasonable distribution of Gas fees.

)# Stablecoin Transfer

Stablecoin transfers serve as a key indicator of the prosperity of the blockchain, ranking second only to DEX in the Ethereum ecosystem. They play a role similar to fiat currency in on-chain transactions, providing a pricing benchmark for other tokens and becoming the preferred intermediary for on-chain token trading due to their trading convenience and low slippage advantage. This mainly consists of the two industry-leading stablecoins, USDT and USDC, effectively reflecting the funding demand and activity level of the Ethereum ecosystem.

In the past month, the Gas fees burned related to stablecoin transfers on the Ethereum chain reached 4.01 million USD, accounting for approximately 8.5% of the total Gas fees burned during the same period. This data not only reflects the strong demand for funds on the chain but also highlights the importance of stablecoin transfers in measuring the sustainable development potential of public chains, as it is directly related to whether a public chain has sufficient funding and user base. Ethereum's strong performance in this indicator further confirms its leading position and ongoing development momentum in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

(# Dex Trading Bot

The rise of the Dex Trading Bot track is due to the popularity of Meme coins. It is an automated trading tool specifically designed for DEX traders, primarily used to facilitate users in snatching up Meme coins. As the number of Meme coin projects has surged, the market has exhibited extremely high volatility and short cycles. Some of them even have active periods of less than 10 minutes, making trading significantly more difficult. Often, a mere few seconds of difference in buying opportunities can determine profits or losses. As a result, trading users are heavily adopting Dex Trading Bots to seize Meme coin openings. This process not only incurs a large amount of Gas fees but also includes a considerable proportion of bribery fees. The purpose is to strive for blockchain miners to prioritize packaging their transactions, thereby gaining an advantageous edge in Meme coin trading.

Data shows that the Dex Trading Bot project ) ranks third in Gas fee contributions, only behind Uniswap and Ethereum/stablecoin transfers, mainly due to Banana Gun and Maestro ###.

Banana Gun, as a cross-chain compatible Dex Trading Bot project, primarily operates on the Ethereum chain and has contributed as much as $1.73 million in Gas fees over the past 30 days. It not only ranks first among all Dex Trading Bot projects but also accounts for 3.68% of the entire Ethereum ecosystem, demonstrating its dominant position in the field of automated trading tools.

Maestro is also a multi-chain compatible Dex Trading Bot project, with Ethereum as its main application scenario. In the last 30 days, it has generated $1.51 million in Gas fees, ranking second among Dex Trading Bot projects and accounting for 3.21% of the total Gas fees in the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting its significant influence in the automated trading market.

The significant position of the Dex Trading Bot track in the Ethereum ecosystem ### ranks third in Gas fee contributions, accounting for about 6.9% (, reflecting its importance, while the head effect is obvious ) with Banana Gun and Maestro occupying more than 90% of the market share (. This situation not only showcases the concentration of this track but also indirectly reflects the reasonable popularity of Meme coin trading on the Ethereum chain. This balance satisfies trading demand while avoiding the negative impact that excessive speculation may have on normal ecological projects on the chain, thus providing strong support for the healthy development of the Ethereum ecosystem.

)# Cryptocurrency Wallet

Wallets serve as the infrastructure for user activities on public blockchains. Their Gas fee contributions not only reflect the real user activity on-chain but also serve as a key indicator for measuring the health of the public blockchain ecosystem. Data shows that MetaMask, as the most widely used on-chain wallet project, dominates the Ethereum ecosystem, contributing $2.91 million in Gas fees and burning $940,000 in the last 30 days, accounting for about 2% of the total Gas fees on the Ethereum chain, highlighting the important position of the wallet sector in the public blockchain ecosystem.

(# On-chain transfer

On-chain transfers on the Ethereum chain, as the second-ranked on-chain activity, have burned $3.83 million in gas fees in the past month, contributing approximately $25.5 million in total gas fees, accounting for about 12% of the total gas fees in the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting its significant position and the strong demand from users within the ETH ecosystem.

)# MEV

MEV, as a unique phenomenon in the blockchain transaction processing phase, is reflected on the Ethereum chain as the additional fees paid by users to accelerate transactions, where the base fee is burned, and the miner's tip goes directly to the miner. This mechanism is made clearer after the EIP-1559 upgrade. Excessive MEV demand often reflects unhealthy development in the on-chain ecosystem, especially in Meme coin projects, where time sensitivity leads users to continuously raise MEV fees to gain an advantage. Thus, the amount of MEV fees can indirectly reflect the activity level of on-chain Meme coin projects to some extent. The burning fees of MEV on the Ethereum chain are approximately $3.76 million, accounting for 8% of the total burning fees on the chain. This data indicates that participation in Meme coin projects does not dominate the Ethereum ecosystem.

( Ethereum Ecosystem Summary

The Ethereum ecosystem shows a diversified development trend but is concentrated in a few main areas. The DeFi sector leads with a 60% share of Gas fees, highlighting its core position, but the internal segmentation is reasonably distributed. ETH transfers )12%###, MEV (8%), and NFT ###8%### follow closely behind, with these four categories accounting for 88% of total Gas consumption. The segments with the highest on-chain Gas fees are DEX ###26%(, on-chain transfers and stablecoins )17%(, Dex Trading Bot )7%(, and wallet sector )3%(, which collectively account for 53%. Layer 2 solutions )6%( and smart contract creation )2%( have a smaller share, reflecting that the ecosystem's development may be in a "low valley period." Nevertheless, this decentralized distribution of Gas fees still reflects the relatively balanced development across various sectors of Ethereum, with no single sector showing excessive concentration, demonstrating the overall health of the ecosystem.

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Solana

) Transaction Fee Composition

The fees and costs on the Solana chain can be divided into three parts:

• Transaction Fees - The fees for validators processing transactions/orders

• Excellent