Gas consumption remains a key indicator of economic activity across various blockchain networks. Tether has emerged as a prominent gas spender on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains.
Conduit Research has been monitoring economic activities and gas consumption on leading blockchain networks over the past year. The Ethereum ecosystem, including the main chain, Layer 2 solutions, and EVM-compatible chains, stands out as the primary hub for Tether transactions. The Tether smart contract ranks among the top gas consumers on these networks.
On the other hand, Solana has gained recognition as a hub for decentralized exchange (DEX) trades, with Raydium leading the pack in gas consumption over the last 12 months.
The Conduit report analyzes gas consumption on Ethereum, Solana, major Layer 2 solutions, and EVM networks like Avalanche. Gas fees serve as a cost for users and a revenue stream for validators on these networks.
Tether Leads Gas Consumption Across Multiple Chains
Tether has deployed USDT tokens natively on several blockchain networks. On Ethereum, the USDT smart contract burned over $70 million worth of gas in the 12 months leading up to April 2025. This places the stablecoin contract second only to the Uniswap router, which consumed over $189 million in gas fees on Ethereum.
Uniswap and Tether frequently alternate as the top gas consumers, depending on factors like user activity, time of day, and the presence of other busy contracts. Currently, USDT accounts for around 6.8% of all Ethereum gas usage in the short term, but this figure rose to 11.75% over the past year.
Tether’s contract versions also lead gas consumption on TRON, OP Mainnet, and rank second on Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain. On Binance Smart Chain, USDT usage is primarily for small-scale transactions related to payments and trades, with the contract burning over 30% of the network’s gas in the past year.
Gas-consuming applications reflect user sentiment and consume resources on the client side. In the case of Ethereum, stablecoins emerge as one of the top use cases even during periods of relatively low network traffic.
The second tier of applications includes DEX router contracts, trading bots, and aggregator platforms like 1inch and CowSwap. The selection of gas-consuming applications is predominantly focused on decentralized finance (DeFi), with minimal representation from other use cases such as gaming or NFTs.
Solana Emerges as DEX-Focused Blockchain
Raydium, the leading DEX on Solana, stands out as the top gas consumer during the observed period. Raydium accounted for 41.81% of all gas consumption on Solana, translating to $145.5 million in fees distributed to validators.
Raydium maintained its position as the primary gas consumer on Solana due to its status as the leading DEX. | Source: Dune Analytics
The Photon trading bot accounted for over 20% of Solana’s gas consumption, while Pump.Fun and the Jupiter aggregator collectively consumed 33% of the network’s gas.
Solana continues to attract over 87.2% of all trading bot users, marking an increase from 86% in recent weeks. The Solana ecosystem demonstrates a deviation from EVM-compatible chains, establishing itself as a high-speed network for DEX transactions.