Ethereum Supply Dynamics Shift as Mainnet Fees Plummet

The Ethereum network has seen significant changes in its supply dynamics since the Merge in September 2022. At that time, miners earned approximately 13,000 ETH per day, but this number dropped by roughly 88% after the transition to proof-of-stake.

In April 2026, around 36-37 million ETH, or over 30% of the total supply, was staked and not available on exchanges. The network also destroys ETH through the EIP-1559 base fee burn, which can be offset by a gas price of at least 16 gwei.

The Dencun upgrade in March 2024 introduced blobs that allow Layer 2 networks to post data cheaply, causing the mainnet burn rate to fall when activity moves to secondary chains. The burn rate dropped to as low as 50-70 ETH per day in early 2025, but has since stabilized with the introduction of EIP-7918 by the Fusaka upgrade in December 2025.

The Ethereum development community is managing the tension between scalability and scarcity, using L2 solutions that decrease the mainnet burn rate. However, this also means that lower transaction costs for users reduce the amount of ETH destroyed on the mainnet.