Ethereum blob market volatility and rollup margins after Pectra

Capacity and fee fluctuations

The September 15 gwei sustained spike crushed smaller rollups.

Pectra increased the target and maximum blobs per block via EIP-7691. This change raised daily data capacity from 5.5GB to 8.15GB. Rollups purchased 25,600 blobs daily in the five full days following the May 7, 2025, upgrade. Because the average number of blobs per block remains well below the updated target rate, rollups pay almost nothing for data despite the increased capacity provided by the Pectra upgrade. Demand stays low.

Parameter	Dencun Era	Pectra Era
Target Blobs	3	6
Maximum Blobs	6	9
Daily Capacity	5.5GB	8.15GB

In the 60 days leading into Pectra, rollups purchased 21,200 blobs per day. Following the upgrade, they purchased an average of 25,600 blobs daily. This increase is 3.3GB of data capacity purchased daily compared to 2.7GB pre-upgrade. Even with this growth, the average number of blobs per block stays 33% below the target of 6. Ethereum produces about 7,100 blocks per day. Only 40% of the maximum amount of data capacity is being bought each day. The median cost per blob object since Pectra went live is $0.00000000035. Rollups paid no more than $0.0000092 daily since the activation. Total blob object fees paid in the five days following Pectra reached only $0.0000395.

Rollup profit margins

Base earns the highest net income after onchain costs. Linea maintains a 98.86% margin. Base maintains a 98.54% margin. Blast improved its percent margins from the high 50% range to over 80% in the days following Pectra. These larger rollups absorb fee volatility better than tiny chains.

Small rollups fail.

Will the fee market stabilize?

The reduction in blob costs improved profit margins in both relative and absolute terms. Each observed rollup minimally doubled its revenue and take-home income net of onchain costs. Base is the biggest beneficiary of the current market structure. Base has earned $1.22 million in revenue. Before the upgrade, rollups paid a daily average of $16,250 in blob fees, totaling $1.095 million in the 60 days leading into the upgrade. Since Pectra, rollups pay no more than $0.0000092 daily. Total daily costs paid by rollups to purchase and execute blobs fell by 51% since Pectra. This includes both blob object and type-3 execution layer transaction costs. Before the upgrade, rollups paid an average of $20,660 daily. Since the upgrade, they pay an average of $11,015 daily. ETH burned from rollup data posting decreased by 71% to 3.26 ETH daily. Of that burned amount, 99.99% comes from base fees of type-3 execution layer transactions. During the period from November 24 to November 26, Base transactions rose 37% and blob posting rose by 13%. At the November 26 peak, fees per successful transaction were around $0.15 and $0.07 per transaction overall. You should watch how these fluctuations affect your preferred chain.

Node storage and data loads

Nodes hold rollup data for at least 18 days. This requirement forces consensus layer nodes to maintain significant data between pruning. The amount of data nodes carry reached an all-time high of 44.6GB on May 12, 2025. If current demand levels persist, nodes will carry an estimated 60GB. At the target rate, they must carry between 95GB and 100GB.

The increase in blobs purchased daily pushed consensus layer nodes toward a new high estimate of 44.6GB of unpruned data. This value has been climbing in the days following Pectra because rollups have been purchasing more blobs. Each blob object holds up to 128KB of data. Rollups are not required to use the full 128KB per blob, but a single blob cannot contain more than the 128KB limit. Blobs have been 86% full on average post-Pectra against 82% full in the 60 days leading into the upgrade. PeerDAS allows a node to request only a subset of a blob’s columns, which reduces bandwidth. This mechanism enables the rapid capacity increases through BPO forks. The consensus layer stores blobs for approximately 18 days before pruning. This period provides enough time for rollup validators to verify transaction data via fraud or validity proofs. You should keep an eye on the fee spikes.