I just saw on-chain monitoring data and almost thought I was seeing things—the gas fee on the Ethereum mainnet has actually dropped to a historic low of 0.025 Gwei!

Calculating it out, transferring a transaction on the mainnet now only costs $0.0017 in fees. What does that mean? It means that with just ten RMB, you could theoretically complete nearly ten thousand on-chain operations. The cost is so low that it almost makes you wonder if there’s a bug somewhere.

What’s even more ridiculous is the comparison: those so-called “low-cost, high-performance” Layer 2 solutions now generally charge $0.0055 to $0.0079 per transaction, which is actually 3 to 5 times more expensive than the mainnet. The scaling and fee-reduction solutions that were promised now seem a bit awkward in light of this.

This plunge in mainnet gas prices might have an even deeper impact on the whole ecosystem than we imagine. Whether you’re a veteran high-frequency arbitrage trader or a newcomer just starting to interact on-chain, the costs are now almost negligible. Many application scenarios that were previously abandoned due to high fees might once again become viable.

Of course, the question now is: how long can this ultra-low gas state last? If the mainnet maintains this price level for the long term, does the positioning of Layer 2 need to be reconsidered? And more importantly—could this become a real turning point for Web3 to go mainstream?

What do you think about this plunge in mainnet gas fees? Will it change your on-chain operation habits?