Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed the idea of establishing an on-chain Gas futures market, which could provide users with certainty regarding transaction fees as the network sees broader adoption.
Buterin posted on X on Saturday, stating that given the questions raised about whether the existing fee reduction methods in Ethereum's roadmap can ensure low Gas fees, the market needs a "good, trustless on-chain Gas futures market."
Buterin pointed out that one way to address uncertainty is to allow users to essentially lock in prices for a specific future time period; he proposed a potential market around Ethereum's base fee, which is a key component of the overall Gas fees.
In traditional futures markets, contracts are used to buy and sell assets like oil at a set price in the future, allowing investors to speculate on price changes and producers to hedge against future risks.
In the context of Ethereum, a futures market would function similarly: providing Gas fees at a set price for a future time window, allowing network users to potentially save costs when prices surge in the future.
Therefore, a mature and reliable futures market would provide critical reference points for the ecosystem to speculate, plan, or build.
He stated, "An on-chain Gas futures market would help address this issue: people would receive clear signals about future Gas fee expectations and could even hedge against future Gas prices, effectively prepaying for any specific amount of Gas within a certain time frame."
Such available prediction markets would provide essential services for users with high transaction volumes on the network (such as traders, builders, applications, and institutions) who need a degree of certainty to forecast operational costs.
According to Etherscan data, at the time Buterin proposed this idea, the average Gas fee for Ethereum base transactions was approximately 0.474 gwei, equivalent to $0.01.
However, for more complex transactions, such as token swaps, NFT sales, and cross-chain asset bridging, the average costs were approximately $0.16, $0.27, and $0.05, respectively.
Despite Ethereum transaction fees continuing to decline in 2025, the average costs for various transactions have still experienced multiple surges and drops. According to Ycharts data, the average fee at the beginning of the year was $1, which then dropped to $0.30, peaking at $2.60 at one point and later falling to $0.18.
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Original article: “Vitalik Buterin proposes introducing Gas futures on Ethereum (ETH) to hedge against the risks of soaring transaction fees”
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