New data shows Ethereum has now burned more than 6 million ETH in transaction fees — over $18 billion worth at the exchange rate of Dec. 7. The milestone marks more than four years since the London upgrade introduced EIP-1559, yet despite the massive burn total, Ethereum’s overall supply continues to grow.
ETH Burn Surpasses 6 Million Since the 2021 London Upgrade
Ethereum recently activated its Fusaka upgrade, a major enhancement that expands block gas capacity and dramatically increases available blob space. In practice, this means each block can now support far more call data and rollup blobs, opening the door to higher throughput and cheaper activity across the network.
Fusaka also restructured Layer-2 (L2) fees and, by extension, helped lower on-chain (L1) gas costs. As of Dec. 7, Ethereum gas fees sat well below 1 gwei, according to etherscan.io.
At 11 a.m. ET on Sunday, low-priority fees hovered around 0.305 gwei, while high-priority fees were roughly 0.326 gwei. This put the cost of a transfer somewhere between $0.005 and $0.02, while smart-contract operations like swaps, NFT sales, or bridge transactions ranged from $0.14 to $0.50.
When London went live in August 2021, EIP-1559 completely overhauled Ethereum’s fee market, introducing a dynamic base fee that is automatically burned — permanently removing ETH from circulation with every block.
Four Years Later: Over 6.1M ETH Burned, Led by Blob Fees
It has now been 4 years, 4 months, and 2 days since London — including leap years — and the burn count has crossed 6.1 million ETH, amounting to $18 billion removed from supply. Data from ultrasound.money shows:
• Blob fees are now the single largest burn driver, eliminating 1,492,094 ETH.
• Standard ETH transfers follow with 377,388 ETH burned.
• NFT marketplace OpenSea accounts for 230,051.12 ETH burned.
• Uniswap v2 contributed 227,337.27 ETH to the burn total.
• USDT usage led to 211,342.55 ETH burned.
• Uniswap v1 completes the top tier with 153,585.62 ETH burned since 2021.
Despite the Burn, ETH Supply Keeps Growing
Even with 6.1 million ETH destroyed, Ethereum’s supply still shows 0.800% annualized inflation over the last four years. Since London, the network has added roughly 4,065,657 ETH to total supply.
Under proof-of-stake (PoS), issuance has been sharply reduced compared to the old proof-of-work (PoW) model. If Ethereum had remained on PoW, simulated data indicates:
• Annual inflation would sit around 3.499%.
• Total supply would have increased by 16,931,820 ETH.
PoS significantly limits issuance, but as the data reveals, the network still operates under mild inflation — a reminder that Ethereum’s deflationary “ultrasound money” narrative is dependent on sustained block activity and congestion, not guaranteed.
Still, compared to the PoW era, the difference is dramatic. Ethereum has substantially reduced its long-term inflation trajectory, even if outright deflation remains elusive.
