Originally published on: October 23, 2024
A recent airdrop frenzy for Ethereum’s new layer-2 network, Scroll, caused a significant increase in blob fees, reaching as high as $4.52. This surge marks the third time blob fees have skyrocketed since Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade in March.
Hildobby, a pseudonymous crypto data analyst, pointed to the Scroll airdrop as the trigger for the rise in blob fees. The governance token SCR of Ethereum L2 Scroll was listed on Binance and airdropped to users on Oct. 22, leading to the sudden increase in fees.
According to data from Dune Analytics, blob fees hit a four-month high on Oct. 22, reaching $4.52. This spike has only been observed twice before, during a surge in L2 activity in July and the launch of Blobscriptions in March.
While expensive blobs result in higher gas payments to the network, they also drive up transaction costs on Ethereum L2s. However, the price of blob fees quickly dropped as L2 activity slowed, settling near zero at the time of this publication.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently warned about the nearing full capacity of the “blob count” and its potential impact on scalability. In response, Ethereum developers introduced EIP-7742 on Oct. 18, aimed at dynamically setting blob gas targets to enhance network scalability in the upcoming Pectra fork.
Introduced as part of Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, blobs have significantly reduced transaction costs on Ethereum’s layer-2 networks. Swap fees on Arbitrum and Polygon have plummeted, showcasing the cost-saving benefits of blobs for temporary data storage.
With measures in place to optimize blob handling and scalability, Ethereum L2 networks are gearing up for smoother operations in the future. Stay tuned for more developments in the crypto space by subscribing to our Crypto Biz newsletter for weekly insights on blockchain and crypto trends.