Ethereum's gas prices have nosedived to a 5-year low. Median fees dropped to 1.9 gwei. This highlights the growing influence of layer-2 solutions.

The cost to send a transaction on Ethereum has hit rock bottom. Low-priority transactions now cost about 1 gwei or less. That's roughly seven cents.

Dune Analytics paints a clear picture. On August 10th, Ethereum's median gas fees bottomed out at 1.9 gwei. It's a massive 98% drop from March's year-to-date high of 83.1 gwei. We haven't seen fees this low since mid-2019.

The Dencun upgrade in March played a role. It introduced data blobs, or proto-danksharding. The goal? Slash transaction costs for layer-2 blockchains.

Layer-2 networks are the new cool kids on the block. They process more transactions at lower cost. How? By offloading them from the main Ethereum network. But they still rely on L1 for validation.

Martin Köppelmann, Gnosis co-founder, chimed in on X. "Ethereum needs to get more L1 activity again," he wrote on August 10th. He's worried about financing staking incentives. These payments go to folks who help validate blockchain transactions.

The numbers don't lie. L2Beat data shows Ethereum's layer-2 activity hit 33 million transactions in the last 30 days. The base blockchain? A whopping 109 million.

Layer 2's Arbitrum and Taiko are killing it. They processed 97 million transactions in the past month. That's some serious volume.

But here's the kicker. Ultra Sound Money reports Ether supply has increased by about 13,400 ETH. That's $34.1 million in the last week. And this is despite less usage in transactions and staker payouts.

So, what's the bottom line? Ethereum's gas fees are dirt cheap. Layer-2 networks are booming. But the OG blockchain might need to step up its game. It's a wild time in the crypto world, folks. Buckle up.