Vitalik Buterin Proposes Onchain Gas Futures to Hedge Fee Spikes

Ethereum ($ETH ) co founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed creating an onchain futures market for gas fees a mechanism that would let users lock in future transaction costs and hedge against volatility as Ethereum adoption grows.

In a post on X, Buterin said the ecosystem needs “a good trustless onchain gas futures market,” especially as users keep asking whether current roadmap solutions can guarantee low gas fees long-term.

How Gas Futures Would Work

Similar to traditional commodity futures, Ethereum gas futures would allow users to buy gas at a fixed price for a specific time window. This gives certainty to anyone who needs predictable transaction costs traders, builders, apps, and institutions.

A reliable gas futures market would:

Show market expectations for future gas prices

Allow users to hedge or prepay for gas in advance

Help projects plan around predictable operating costs

Current Gas Situation

Ethereum gas fees in 2025 have dropped significantly:

Simple transfers: 0.474 gwei (~$0.01)

Token swaps: $0.16

NFT sales: $0.27

Bridging: $0.05

However, volatility remains. According to YCharts, the average fee in 2025 started at $1, peaked at $2.60, and fell as low as $0.18.

Buterin believes an onchain futures market could stabilize expectations and make Ethereum more predictable for heavy-volume users.

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