Ethereum Earns $1.79B in App Fees, Yet Captures Under 5%

Ethereum's ecosystem generated $1.79 billion in application-layer fees, yet the network itself captured less than 5% of that revenue. This disparity stems from the rapid growth of layer-2 rollups, which now handle 41 times more transactions than Ethereum's mainnet. While these scaling solutions have dramatically increased activity, they have also shifted fee revenue away from the base layer. As a result, ETH holders see limited direct financial benefit from the network's expanding usage. Analysts suggest that value accrual has stalled because most fees are paid to rollup operators and sequencers rather than to Ethereum's validators. The trend raises questions about the long-term economic model of the network, as users increasingly favor cheaper and faster layer-2 solutions.