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Ethereum’s NFT gas usage heads towards a two-year low as inscription demand takes over Ethereum’s NFT gas usage heads towards a two-year low as inscription demand takes over

Ethereum’s NFT gas usage heads towards a two-year low as inscription demand takes over

NFT gas usage for Ethereum hits 20%, heading in a downwards trend since the start of the year

Definition

The relative amount (share) of gas consumed by the Ethereum network by category. Transactions are classified into one of the following categories:

  • NFTs: Transactions interacting with non-fungible tokens. This category includes of both token contract standards (ERC721, ERC1155), as well as NFT marketplaces (OpenSea, LooksRare, Rarible, SuperRare) for trading those.
  • DeFi: On-chain financial instruments and protocols implemented as smart contracts, including decentralized exchanges (DEXs). We include over 90+ DeFi protocols in this category, such as Uniswap, Etherdelta, 1inch, Sushiswap, Aave, and 0x.

Quick Take

  • Current gas usage for NFTs on Ethereum is roughly 20%, a new low for 2023 but just above the low of 16% in November.
  • This is partly due to the growth of Inscriptions and Ordinals in the Bitcoin ecosystem, which we expect to continue as a long-term trend.
  • DeFi is also at two-year lows, using less than 8% of the current gas usage.
  • Inscriptions are one of the main stories for 2023, which has surpassed 350,000 inscriptions year-to-date.
Ethereum Gas Usage: (Source: Glassnode)
Ethereum Gas Usage: (Source: Glassnode)
Inscriptions Total Count: (Source: Glassnode)
Inscriptions Total Count: (Source: Glassnode)