Galaxy: The Current Status of Ethereum Blobs and the Blob Market in the Post-Pectra Era

Rollup has not yet fully utilized the improved data availability of Ethereum brought by the Pectra upgrade.

Written by: Zack Pokorny, Galaxy Research Analyst

Compiled by: AIMan@Golden Finance

Introduction

On May 7, 2025, the Ethereum Pectra upgrade went live on the mainnet. In the implemented Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP), EIP-7691 increases the number of target blobs and the maximum number of blobs per block. In last year's Dencun upgrade, EIP-4844 (formerly Danksharding) introduced blobs to provide a dedicated data publishing space for rollups. Since the launch of Dencun, the Ethereum network has maintained a target number of 3 blobs per block and a maximum number of blobs; At a data size of 128kb per blob, this means that the amount of data transferred through the blob is about 5.5GB per day. After the Pectra upgrade, the number of target and maximum blobs per block increased to 6 and 9, respectively, and the blob data capacity increased to approximately 8.15GB per day. This change has had an impact on the blob marketplace, rollups, and Ethereum validators, with an increase that reduces the scarcity of the amount of fixed blob space that rollups compete for, and increases the network's data availability through blobs (DA) capacity. The following article explores the impact of the Pectra upgrade's changes to Ethereum blob parameters on the blob marketplace, rollups and their users, Ethereum validators, and the ETH supply.

Key Points

• In the five full days since Pectra went live, the number of blobs purchased daily through rollup increased from about 21,200 to 25,600. Despite the increase, the average number of blobs per block is still 33% lower than the new target of 6 blobs per block.
• Since the actual number of Blobs per block is far lower than the updated target fee rate, Blobs have been almost free since mid-April 2025. Since the launch of Pectra, the daily fees paid through Rollup are less than a thousandth of a cent, with the total cost of Blob objects being only four ten-thousandths of a cent. This significantly reduces the amount of ETH consumed for purchasing and publishing Rollup data space on Ethereum through Blobs.
• Nodes must retain rollup blob data for at least 18 days before it can be removed from their machines. The increase in the number of blobs purchased daily has resulted in a new high of 44.6GB of data that consensus layer nodes must maintain between two pruning events.
• The reduction in Blob costs has improved the relative and absolute profit margins of Rollups, with Base being the biggest beneficiary in terms of net income after deducting on-chain costs. Meanwhile, since the launch of Pectra, the transaction costs of some top Rollups have remained unchanged or even slightly increased.
• All data used is taken from the public dashboard of Galaxy Research regarding the Ethereum blob market and its impact on Rollup.

Blob Market

Since Pectra went live on May 7, 2025, the daily number of blobs purchased on the rollup platform has increased by 20.8% compared to before the upgrade. In the 60 days prior to the Pectra upgrade, the rollup platform purchased an average of 21,200 blobs per day. In the five days following the upgrade, they averaged 25,600 blobs purchased per day. This means that the data capacity purchased daily before the upgrade was 2.7 GB, while it is now 3.3 GB.

Despite the increase in the number of blobs purchased, the average daily blob usage per block has only been two-thirds of the new target blob limit since the launch of Pectra. Therefore, while the average number of blobs per block has consistently remained at the target rate before the increase in blobs on Pectra, the demand for rollups has not yet reached the level to sustain the new target rate.

Therefore, since each block only used two-thirds of the blob target, the blob is actually free. This is the first time since mid-April 2025 that blobs have been this cheap. Since the launch of Pectra, the median cost per blob object has only been $0.0000000035 (nine zeros). This has led to rollups paying no more than $0.0000092 (five zeros) per day since the activation of Pectra; in the entire five days after the activation of Pectra, only a total of $0.0000395 was paid for blob object fees. You are not mistaken, since the launch of Pectra, rollups have been paying less than a thousandth of a cent per day, while the total cost of blob objects is a fourth of a cent. Please note that this figure does not include the type 3 transaction costs required to execute blobs on-chain, but only the cost of the blob objects themselves.

This means that the fees for blob objects paid to Ethereum by rollups have decreased by nearly 100%—in the 60 days prior to Pectra rollups, an average of $16,250 in blob fees was paid daily, totaling $1.095 million.

Data Capacity Usage and Its Impact on Ethereum Nodes

In the post-Pectra era, a larger portion of the total daily data capacity provided by Blobs in Ethereum remains unsold. Therefore, even though Rollups are purchasing more Blobs from the network to gain additional data space, the share of daily Blob total data capacity purchased has been relatively small since the launch of Pectra. Once the demand for Rollups reaches the updated target rate, the Blob market will operate more efficiently from a capacity perspective, as the new target rate is only 33% lower than the maximum, compared to 50% under the old parameters.

The updated blob capacity is 9 blobs per block, with an average of about 7,100 Ethereum blocks per day. Ethereum can sell a maximum of about 8.17GB of blob space daily, with 5.45GB available based on the target number of blobs per block; this value will fluctuate with the actual number of blocks each day. However, only 3.3GB of data space has been sold so far—just 40% of the maximum available daily data capacity and only 61% of the target number. In contrast, one month before the implementation of the Pectra plan, when the target number of blobs (3 blobs per block) was reached, the average daily sales volume was 50% of the total capacity and 99% of the target number.

Each Blob object can hold up to 128 kilobytes (KB). Rollup data does not need to occupy the entire 128KB of each Blob (for example, each Blob can use 100KB if necessary); however, the capacity of a single Blob cannot exceed the 128KB limit. The difference between the purchased Blob capacity (green line in the chart) and the used Blob capacity (red line in the chart) highlights how many Blob objects are filled to the 128KB limit by rollup data each day. After upgrading to Pectra, the average occupancy of Blobs is 86%, compared to 82% in the 60 days before the upgrade.

The increase in the amount of blob data purchased per day causes consensus layer nodes to have to carry more rollup data on their machines. Nodes must retain Rollup Blob data for at least 18 days before it can be removed (pruned) from the machine. Prior to Pectra, this meant that nodes had to carry between 40GB and 44GB of data on a continuous basis. In the days following Pectra, this number has been climbing as Rollups buy more blobs, and this number is likely to continue to increase as Rollups saturate with new blob parameters. As of May 12, 2025, the unpruned rollup data held by consensus layer nodes is estimated to have reached an all-time high of 44.6GB. If the demand for blobs remains at current levels, then consensus layer nodes will have to carry about 60GB of rollup data; At the target rate, they will have to carry around 95GB to 100GB of data.

Rollup Cost and ETH Burning

Since the launch of Pectra, Rollups have paid an average of $11,015 per day in Blob-related fees, including the costs of Blob objects and Type-3 execution layer transactions. In contrast, in the 60 days prior to the update, the average daily payment was $20,660, which means the total daily cost of purchasing and executing Blobs has decreased by 51%.

The significant increase in Ethereum Layer 1 fees has resulted in high costs for Rollups when paying for Blob activities. Within just a few days after the activation of Pectra, the base fees for Ethereum Layer 1 surged by over 650% week on week. Without this spike, the fees required for Rollups to execute Blobs would be lower, and the ETH consumed by Rollup Blob activities would also be less.

Since the activation of Pectra, the amount of ETH consumed for publishing Rollup data via Blob has significantly decreased (including ETH used to purchase Blob and execute transactions on Ethereum Layer 1 via type 3 transactions). In the 60 days prior to the upgrade, an average of 11.22 ETH was consumed daily, with execution layer fees accounting for only 37.1% of the total daily consumption. Since the activation of Pectra, only 3.26 ETH is consumed daily (a 71% decrease), and 99.99% of the total consumption comes from the base fees of type 3 execution layer transactions.

Impact on L2

After the launch of Pectra, both the relative and absolute profit margins of Rollup after deducting on-chain costs have significantly increased. Linea and Base have the highest profit margin percentages after deducting on-chain costs among the observed Rollups, calculated using a seven-day moving average, at 98.86% and 98.54%, respectively. Blast has seen the most significant increase in profit margin percentage after deducting on-chain costs, rising from a high of 50% to a low of 60% in the days leading up to the launch of Pectra, and now has exceeded 80%.

After the launch of Pectra, on-chain costs have risen, but the net gains brought by Rollup have decreased. This is mainly due to the combined effect of lower data costs (as mentioned above) and rising activity and transaction costs. The revenue observed for each Rollup platform and the net profit after deducting on-chain costs have roughly doubled, but in absolute terms, Base is the biggest beneficiary in recent cases. Base's revenue is $1.22 million, with a net profit of $1.12 million after deducting on-chain costs.

Conclusion

Rollups have yet to take full advantage of the Ethereum data availability improvements brought about by the Pectra upgrade. As a result, it reduces the cost of owing Ethereum per day for DA activities through blobs. At least for now, this upgrade allows Rollup to increase the number of blobs used per day while making it financially better for its operations. Pectra's changes to Ethereum's blob parameters also raise key points regarding node requirements for storing blob data. As Ethereum begins to scale its Blob DA, this could have an impact on node operators who have to take on higher Blob data holding requirements.