ethereum (eth) has turned inflationary in 2024 for the first time since 2022. Despite burning 465,657 eth since the beginning of the year, the network has added a net total of 75,301 eth to its supply.
The shift from deflationary to inflationary occurred in Q2 2024, when network activity decreased. During this quarter, 228,543 eth were issued versus 107,725 eth burned, resulting in 120,818 eth added to the blockchain.
Uniswap remains the largest eth burner, having burned 71,915 eth in 2024. However, its burn rate fell 72.4% QoQ to 15,031 eth in Q2, down from 54,413 eth in Q1. eth and Tether (USDT) transfers were the second- and third-largest contributors to eth burns, respectively.
Contracts with the most eth burned in 2024. Image: CoinGecko
July 2024 marked an all-time low in monthly eth burns for the year, with just 17,114 eth burned, a 35% decrease from June. This figure stands in stark contrast to the all-time high of 398,061 eth burned in January 2022 during the last bull market cycle.
It is worth noting that the Banana Gun and Maestro trading bots ranked fourth and fifth in eth burning, respectively. Together, both apps burned more than 20,000 eth in 2024.
However, Banana Gun recorded a 74.3% quarterly drop in eth burn this year, going from burning 8,364 eth in Q1 to 2,150 eth in Q2. “A drop in DEX trading on the blockchains it supports has impacted its burn rate,” the report noted.
Layer-2 blockchain Scroll also ranked among the top 10 eth burners in 2024, which could be related to users interacting with the network to increase their potential rewards, as a token airdrop of the network is rumored to occur this year.
The methodology applied by CoinGecko consisted of examining data from January 1 to August 5, 2024, using Dune Analytics and Etherscan.
