The State of Ethereum Blobs and Blob Market Post-Pectra
Introduction
Last Wednesday (May 7, 2025), Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade went live on mainnet. In the collection of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that were implemented was an increase in the target and maximum blobs per block via EIP-7691. Blobs were introduced through EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding) in last year’s Dencun upgrade to offer a designated space for rollups to post data to. The network maintained a target amount of 3 blobs per block and a maximum of 6 from the time Dencun went live; at 128kb per blob, this represented about 5.5GB of data capacity per day through blobs. After Pectra, the target and maximum number of blobs per block increased to 6 and 9, respectively, increasing blob data capacity to about 8.15GB daily. This change has consequences for each of the blob market, rollups, and Ethereum validators, with the increase reducing the scarcity of the fixed amount of blobspace rollups are competing for and increasing the data availability (DA) capacity of the network through blobs. The following explores the impacts of Pectra’s changes to Ethereum blob parameters on the blob market, rollups, and their users, Ethereum validators, and the supply of ETH.
Key Takeaways
The daily number of blobs purchased by rollups increased from about 21,200 to 25,600 in the five full days after Pectra went live. Despite the increase, the average number of blobs per block is still 33% below the new target of 6 blobs per block.
As a result of the actual number of blobs per block being well below the updated target rate, blobs are virtually free again for the first time since mid-April 2025. Less than one-thousandth of a penny has been paid by rollups daily, and four-thousandths of a penny have been paid in total blob object costs since Pectra went live. This has significantly reduced the amount of ETH burned daily from rollup data space purchasing and posting on Ethereum through blobs.
Nodes must hold onto rollup blob data for at least 18 days before they can remove it from their machines. The increase in the number of blobs purchased daily has pushed the amount of data that consensus layer nodes must maintain between pruning to a new high estimate of 44.6GB.
The reduction in blob costs has improved the profit margins of rollups in relative and absolute terms, with Base being the biggest beneficiary in terms of net income after onchain costs. This is all while transaction costs on some of the top rollups have gone unchanged to slightly higher since Pectra was activated.
All data used was pulled from Galaxy Research’s public dashboard on the Ethereum blob market and impact on rollups.
The Blob Market
Since Pectra went live on May 7, 2025, rollups have been purchasing 20.8% more blobs daily than they were pre-upgrade. In the 60 days leading into Pectra, rollups purchased 21,200 blobs per day. In the five full days following the upgrade, they have been purchasing an average of 25,600 blobs daily. This represents a difference of purchasing 2.7 gigabytes (GB) of data capacity daily pre-upgrade against 3.3GB today.
Despite the increase in blobs purchased, only two-thirds of the new target blob limit per block has been used on average each day since Pectra went live. So, while the average number of blobs per block was consistently at the target rate before Pectra’s increase, rollups have not yet reached a level of demand to consistently hit the new target rate.
As a result, blobs have been virtually free because only two-thirds of the blob target per block has been used. This is the first time since mid-April 2025 that blobs have been consistently this cheap. The median cost per blob object since Pectra went live is just $0.00000000035 (nine zeros). This has resulted in rollups paying no more than $0.0000092 (five zeros) daily since Pectra was activated; just $0.0000395 in blob object fees have been paid total in the five full days following Pectra’s activation. You read that correctly, less than one-thousandth of a penny has been paid by rollups daily, and four-thousandths of a penny have been paid in total blob object costs since Pectra went live. Note, this figure excludes the type-3 transaction cost required to get blobs executed onchain and only includes the cost of the blob objects themselves.
This represents a near 100% decline in blob object fees paid to Ethereum by rollups – in the 60 days leading into Pectra, rollups paid a daily average of $16,250 in blob fees totaling $1.095 million.
Data Capacity Used and Impact on Ethereum Nodes
A higher amount of Ethereum’s total daily data capacity through blobs is going unpurchased in the post-Pectra regime. So, while rollups are purchasing more blobs, and in turn more data space, from the network since Pectra went live, a relatively smaller share of the total blob data capacity is being bought up per day. Once rollup demand meets the updated target rate, the blob market will be running more efficiently from a capacity perspective; however, as the new target rate is only 33% below the max against 50% under the old parameters.
With the updated blob capacity of 9 blobs per block and about 7,100 Ethereum blocks per day, Ethereum can sell up to roughly 8.17GB of blobspace per day and 5.45GB at the target rate per block; this value can fluctuate with the actual number of blocks daily. However, just 3.3GB of dataspace is being purchased – only 40% of the maximum amount of data capacity available each day and 61% of the target rate. This compares to 50% of total capacity and 99% of the target rate being purchased on average daily in the month leading into Pectra, when the target blob rate per block (3 blobs per block) was being hit.
Each blob object can hold up to 128 kilobytes (kb) of data. Rollups are not required to use the full 128kb per blob (e.g., they can use 100kb per blob if necessary), however, a single blob cannot contain more than the 128kb limit. The delta between blob capacity purchased (green line on chart) and blob capacity used (red line on chart) highlights how much of the 128kb upper bound on blob objects is being filled with rollup data daily. Blobs have been 86% full on average post-Pectra against 82% full in the 60 days leading into the upgrade.
The increased amount of blob data purchased per day has resulted in consensus layer nodes having to carry more rollup data on their machines. Nodes must hold onto rollup blob data for at least 18 days before they can remove (prune) it from their machines. Leading into Pectra, this meant nodes had to consistently carry between 40GB and 44GB of data. This value has been climbing in the days following Pectra as rollups have been purchasing more blobs and will presumably continue to expand as rollups saturate the new blob parameters. Consensus layer nodes are holding an estimated all-time high of 44.6GB of unpruned rollup data as of May 12, 2025. If the current level of demand for blobs sustains, consensus layer nodes will have to carry around an estimated 60GB of rollup data; at the target rate, they will have to carry between an estimated 95GB and 100GB.
Rollup Costs and ETH Burned
Rollups have paid a daily average of $11,015 in blob-related costs since Pectra was activated, including both blob object and type-3 execution layer transaction costs. This compares to an average of $20,660 in the 60 days leading into the update, representing a 51% decline in total daily costs paid to purchase and execute blobs.
A sharp rise in Ethereum layer 1 fees has aided in keeping the costs paid by rollups on blob activity elevated. The Ethereum layer 1 base fee has increased more than 650% week-over-week in the days following Pectra’s activation. Without this spike, rollups would be paying even less to execute blob,s and even less ETH would be burned by rollup blob activity.
The amount of ETH being burned from rollup data posting activity through blobs, including ETH spent on purchasing blobs and getting them executed on Ethereum layer 1 via type-3 transactions, has declined substantially after Pectra’s activation. In the 60 days leading into the upgrade, a combined 11.22 ETH was burned on average each day, with execution layer fees comprising just 37.1% of the daily total. Since Pectra was activated, only 3.26 ETH has been burned daily (a 71% decline), and 99.99% of the total burned is from base fees of type-3 execution layer transactions.
Impact on L2s
Rollups' relative and absolute margins after onchain costs have mostly improved post-Pectra. Linea and Base hold the strongest percent margins after onchain costs of the observed rollups at 98.86% and 98.54%, respectively, using the seven-day moving average. Blast has seen the strongest improvement in its percent margins after onchain costs, expanding from high 50% to low 60% in the few days leading into Pectra to 80%+ today.
The amount of net dollars rollups is bringing home after onchain costs has risen after Pectra’s activation. This is due to a combination of a reduction in data costs, as mentioned above, and increases in activity and transaction costs. Each of the observed rollups minimally doubled their revenue and take-home income net of onchain costs, however, Base has been the biggest beneficiary under recent conditions in absolute terms. Base has earned $1.22 million in revenue, retaining $1.12 million after onchain costs.
Conclusion
Rollups have not yet needed to fully tap into the increase in Ethereum data availability afforded by Pectra. As a result, it has reduced the costs they owe to Ethereum daily for DA activity through blobs. The upgrade has made it, at least for now, more favorable for rollups to operate financially while increasing the number of blobs used daily. Pectra’s change to Ethereum blob parameters has also raised key points around requirements for nodes storing blob data. As Ethereum begins to scale its blob DA, it may have consequences on node operators who must compensate for the increased blob data hold requirement.
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