Vitalik Buterin Proposes Onchain Futures Market for Ethereum Gas Fees
According to Cointelegraph, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed the creation of an onchain futures market for gas fees, aiming to provide users with certainty over transaction costs as the network's adoption grows. In a post on X, Buterin emphasized the need for a "good trustless onchain gas futures market," responding to inquiries about the reliability of low gas fees through current price reduction strategies in Ethereum's roadmap.
Buterin suggested that one solution to address fee uncertainty is to allow users to lock in prices for specific future periods. He highlighted the potential for a market focused on Ethereum Base fees, which are integral to overall gas fees. In traditional futures markets, contracts are offered to buy or sell assets at a predetermined future price, enabling speculation on price changes and risk hedging. Similarly, an Ethereum gas futures market would offer set prices for future time windows, potentially allowing network users to save on future price spikes.
A well-established futures market could serve as a crucial metric for the ecosystem, facilitating speculation, planning, and development. "An onchain gas futures market would help solve this: people would get a clear signal of people’s expectations of future gas fees, and would even be able to hedge against future gas prices, effectively prepaying for any specific quantity of gas in a specific time interval," Buterin stated. Such a prediction market would be invaluable for users with high network volume, including traders, builders, applications, and institutions, who need certainty in projecting operational costs.
The proposal comes amid declining Ethereum gas fees throughout 2025. Currently, average gas fees for basic transactions are approximately 0.474 gwei, or $0.01, according to Etherscan data. However, more complex transactions like token swaps, NFT sales, and asset bridging have average costs of around $0.16, $0.27, and $0.05, respectively. Despite the overall decline in Ethereum transaction fees in 2025, average costs have experienced significant fluctuations, with spikes and crashes. Data from Ycharts indicates that the average fee began the year at $1, dropping to $0.30, with surges up to $2.60 and dips as low as $0.18.
