In-Depth Analysis of the Revenue Sustainability of the Three Major Blockchain Public Chains

Introduction

The revenue sustainability of public chains is a key indicator for assessing their long-term development potential. This report focuses on the three major mainstream public chains: Ethereum, Solana, and TRON. By analyzing their Gas fee revenue composition, on-chain economic activities, and user income and expenditure situations, it delves into the revenue models of these public chains and their sustainability.

According to the latest data, Ethereum leads with $99.89 million in Gas fees over the past 30 days, followed by Solana and Tron with $46.21 million and $38.97 million, respectively. However, the daily active address data shows a different pattern: Tron ranks first with 2.1 million, followed by Solana with 1.1 million, and Ethereum with only 316,000. This discrepancy highlights the complex relationship between Gas fee revenue, on-chain activity, and user activity, providing a unique perspective for in-depth analysis of the revenue sustainability of these three major public chains.

Ethereum

Gas fee income composition

Ethereum has undergone a series of major upgrades, including the transition from PoW to PoS and the implementation of EIP-1559, which have a profound impact on its Gas fee structure. The new Gas fee structure is divided into two parts:

• Base Fee (: The system automatically destroys.
• 小费)Tips(: Directly paid to the validator

The destruction mechanism of the base fee is expected to drive ETH into a deflationary state, potentially increasing its value. 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 of validators and reduces reliance on new coin issuance, but also creates long-term deflationary potential for ETH through the base fee destruction mechanism.

In the past 30 days, Ethereum has burned approximately $47 million worth of ETH through the base fee mechanism. The main contributors to the burn amount are as follows:

• Decentralized Finance ) DeFi (: 60%
• ETH Transfer: 12%
• MEV) Maximum Extractable Value (: 8%
• NFT) Non-Fungible Token (: 8%
• Layer 2 Solutions: 6%
• Smart Contract Creation: 2%

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) On-chain economic activities

DeFi

As the core of the Ethereum ecosystem, DeFi encompasses multiple sub-tracks, including DEX, lending platforms, stablecoins, derivatives, etc. Tracks such as DEX, stablecoins, DEX trading bots, and crypto wallets stand out in terms of Gas consumption.

• Uniswap###DEX( In the past 30 days, the revenue was 54.23 million USD, contributing 8.15 million USD in Gas fees, accounting for about 17.3%. The trading pairs with high trading volume are mainly composed of ETH and stablecoins, while the proportion of speculative Meme token trading is extremely low.

• 1inch) DEX Aggregator( Contributed approximately $1.21 million in Gas fees, 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.

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)# Stablecoin Transfer

Stablecoin transfers rank second in the Ethereum ecosystem, just behind DEX, with a Gas fee burn of 4.01 million USD in the past month, accounting for approximately 8.5% of the total Gas fee burned during the same period. This is mainly composed of USDT and USDC, reflecting strong on-chain capital demand and activity.

DEX Trading Bot

The rise of the DEX Trading Bot track originates from the popularity of Meme coins. As an automated trading tool, it is primarily used to facilitate users in purchasing Meme coins. In the past 30 days, the two projects, Banana Gun and Maestro, have contributed Gas fees of $1.73 million and $1.51 million respectively, accounting for 3.68% and 3.21% of the total Gas fees in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Cryptocurrency Wallet

MetaMask, as the most widely used on-chain wallet, contributed $2.91 million in Gas fees and burned $940,000 in the last 30 days, accounting for approximately 2% of the total Gas fees on the Ethereum Blockchain.

On-chain transfer

In the past month, $3.83 million in Gas fees were burned, contributing an estimated total Gas fee of about $25.5 million, accounting for approximately 12% of the total Gas fees in the Ethereum ecosystem.

(# MEV

The MEV burn fee is approximately $3.76 million, accounting for 8% of the total burn fee on the chain, indicating 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 several main areas:

• The DeFi sector leads with a 60% share of Gas fees.
• ETH transfer ### 12% ###, MEV ### 8% ( and NFT ) 8% ( closely follow.
• The on-chain burning Gas fees for the most segmented tracks: DEX ) 26% (, on-chain transfers and stablecoins ) 17% (, DEX Trading Bot ) 7% (, and wallet track ) 3% (.
• Layer 2 solutions ) 6% ( and smart contract creation ) 2% ( account for a relatively small proportion.

This distributed Gas fee distribution reflects the relatively balanced development of various tracks in Ethereum, showcasing the overall health of the ecosystem.

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Solana

) Transaction Fee Composition

The fees and costs on the Solana Blockchain are divided into three parts:

• Transaction Fee: The cost of processing transactions/orders
• Priority Fee: An optional fee to increase the transaction processing order.
• Rent: Maintain the reserve balance for on-chain data storage

Solana stipulates that a fixed percentage of each transaction fee, (, is initially set to be destroyed at 50% ), with the remainder belonging to the validators. In the past 30 days, stakers have earned transaction fee rewards valued at 23.1 million dollars.

The popularity of Meme coin projects on the Solana Blockchain has resulted in extremely high time sensitivity for transactions, prompting users to significantly increase priority fees to gain an edge, thereby significantly increasing the income from fees and bribes for stakers.

On-chain interaction volume distribution:

• DEX activity: 86%
• Launcher:4%
• Other activities: 10%

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) On-chain economic activity

(# DEX

Raydium and Orca account for 70% of DEX interaction volume.

• Raydium: Generated $5,237,000 in trading fees in the last 30 days, with revenue mainly coming from Meme coin trading pairs.
• Orca: Generated $12.25 million in transaction fees in the last 30 days, with over 50% of the revenue coming from Meme coin trading pairs.

The DEX track accounts for 86% of on-chain interactions, with estimated transaction fees exceeding 80%. Meme coin trading accounts for over 90% and 60% in Raydium and Orca, respectively, estimating that the Gas fees contributed by Meme coin trading in the entire Solana ecosystem exceed 55%.

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MEV

In the past 30 days, transactions with priority fees (MEV) accounted for 82.45% of the total transaction volume. MEV fees accounted for as much as 80% of the transaction fees, amounting to approximately 30 million dollars.

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)# DEX Trading Bot

The top three DEX Trading Bot projects (Photon, Bonkbot, and Trojan) account for over 90% of the trading share on this Blockchain. The total revenue in the last 30 days is approximately 33.67 million USD.

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) Solana Ecosystem Summary

About 80% of the transaction activities on the Solana Blockchain are contributed by Meme coins trading. Monthly cost expenditure for Meme coin players:

• MEV Priority Fee: 30 million USD
• DEX Trading Bot usage fee: 30 million USD
• DEX transaction fee: 50 million USD

Meme coin players' monthly losses are estimated to reach $110 million. This ecosystem prosperity model driven by meme coins has significant sustainability risks. The Solana ecosystem faces severe challenges and needs to seek a more balanced and sustainable development path.

Tron

The Tron blockchain has a unique design, where the on-chain transaction fees are mainly used to compensate for the consumption of network energy and bandwidth.

• Calculate energy fees: the computational resources for processing and verifying transactions.
• Bandwidth fee: Spreading transaction data in the Blockchain network

Users need to burn TRX to pay for transaction resources when bandwidth or energy is insufficient, promoting TRX deflation. Since October 29, 2021, the circulation of TRX has shown a continuous deflationary trend, mainly attributed to the widespread use of USDT on the Tron network and its significant increase in trading volume.

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Data from July 22, 2024, shows that USDT transfers account for 94.51% of the activity on the Tron chain. The design advantages of the Tron chain include:

• A fixed low transfer fee of 1U ) is not affected by the amount (.
• 3 seconds fast block time
• No additional priority fees required

These features give Tron a significant competitive advantage in the on-chain payment field.

In August 2024, Tron founder Justin Sun announced his entry into the Meme sector, attracting a large number of Meme projects to settle in. As of August 20, the energy consumption structure on the Tron Blockchain has undergone significant changes:

• The proportion of USDT transfers has dropped to 52%
• The proportion of DEX activities surged from 3% to 47%

Despite the decline in the proportion of USDT transfers in the overall ecosystem, its actual energy consumption remains stable, maintained in the range of 80B-90B. This indicates that the introduction of Meme projects has not substantively affected the core business of the Tron ecosystem.

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Summary

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the revenue composition and sustainability of the three major public chains: Ethereum, Solana, and Tron, drawing the following key conclusions:

) Ethereum: presents the most balanced and sustainable development model

• Diversification of income sources: Balanced development in multiple areas such as DeFi, ETH transfers, MEV, and NFTs.
• Ecosystem Health: A reasonable proportion of core applications reflects genuine and sustained user demand.
• Innovation and Upgrade: Optimize the fee mechanism, create long-term value through ETH destruction.
• Long-term potential: Diversified application scenarios and continuous technological innovation provide strong development momentum.

( Solana: Rapid growth but faces sustainability challenges

• Income is highly concentrated: DEX activities account for 86%, and Meme coin transactions contribute over 55% of the Gas fees.
• MEV is widely used: 82.45% of transactions use MEV, reflecting a highly speculative environment.
• High user costs: Meme coin players are estimated to lose $110 million each month.
• Sustainability Risk: The model of excessive reliance on Meme coin trading is difficult to maintain in the long term and requires strategic adjustments.

) Tron: Focus on the payment field, showcasing unique advantages

• Stablecoin Dominance: USDT transfers account for 94.51% of on-chain activity.
• Technical advantages are obvious: low fees, fast confirmation, and a fixed fee model are suitable for large-scale payment applications.
• Structural resilience: Core USDT transfer business remains stable
• Long-term sustainability: Stablecoin transfers based on rigid demand provide a reliable source of long-term income.

Comprehensive Assessment

Ethereum demonstrates the strongest long-term sustainability with its diversified ecosystem and continuous technological innovation. Solana is growing rapidly, but its heavy reliance on Meme coin trading poses significant risks and requires a strategic transformation. Tron has established a unique market position and sustainable revenue model by focusing on the payment sector, particularly stablecoin transfers.

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