Vitalik Buterin Proposes New Gas Futures Market as Ethereum Fees Swing
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has just floated an idea that could fundamentally change how users handle transaction costs...
Quick overview
- Vitalik Buterin has proposed an on-chain gas futures market for Ethereum to help users manage transaction costs more effectively.
- This system would allow users to lock in future gas prices, providing predictability and protection against fee volatility.
- The proposed market aims to enhance transparency in long-term fee forecasts and offer a structured cost framework for developers.
- With Ethereum fees currently dropping, the futures market could serve as a safety net for businesses and heavy users facing unpredictable costs.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has just floated an idea that could fundamentally change how users handle transaction costs on the world’s largest smart contract network. He’s talking about adding an on-chain gas futures market – basically a system that lets people lock in future transaction fees and protect themselves against all those crazy volatility swings.
In a detailed post on X, Buterin explained that even though Ethereum’s roadmap aims to keep fees pretty low, the community is still left scratching their heads about whether or not those reductions are gonna stick in the long run. He says a structured futures market would be a great way for people to plan their budgets months in a way that’s super transparent and doesn’t require any trust.
Under his idea, people would be able to buy gas at a fixed price for a specific time period. Again, that’s specifically talking about Ethereum’s Base Fee, the part of the fee that determines how much it costs to get your stuff included in a block. If this futures market gets implemented, you’d have predictable pricing even when the network is slammed.
How an Ethereum Gas Futures Market Could Work
Futures markets in real life let you buy or sell actual commodities, like oil or grain, at a set price, so you don’t get caught off guard when the price goes up. Buterin reckons the same idea can be applied to Ethereum to deliver similar benefits to network participants.
⚡ NEW: Vitalik Buterin proposes onchain gas futures market for Ethereum to help users hedge against network fee volatility as adoption increases. pic.twitter.com/G38EsSlTb0
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) December 8, 2025
In an Ethereum-based model, people would be able to buy gas for future use at a fixed price – and that way they’d be protected from those wild fee surges.
Potential Benefits
- You’d have a clear idea of what future network activity is gonna cost
- Hedge tools for traders, dApps, exchanges, and big institutions that are getting hammered by unpredictable fees
- New transparency into long-term fee forecasts
- A real cost structure for developers who want to build high-volume apps
A working futures market would also be like a super-accurate prediction tool, telling you precisely what the gas prices are likely to be in real time. Heavy users – like NFT platforms, bridges, trading bots, and whatever else is out there – would get a much clearer picture of how much their operations are gonna cost.
Ethereum Fees Still Dropping in 2025
Buterin’s proposal comes at a time when network fees are dropping fast across 2025. According to Etherscan data, the average gas fee for a simple transaction is sitting around 0.474 gwei – that’s just $0.01. That’s one of the cheapest times in years.
Vitalik Buterin Calls for Trustless On-Chain Gas Futures Market @ethereum co-founder @VitalikButerin proposes a prediction market for BASEFEE to forecast future gas fees, enabling users to hedge against volatility amid scaling upgrades like BAL, ePBS, and ZK-EVM.
"This would… pic.twitter.com/zceRuJs8hT
— Crypto Miners (@CryptoMiners_Co) December 7, 2025
But even though the overall trend is going down, there’s still a lot of variation in the fees:
- Token swaps are around ~$0.16
- NFT sales are ~$0.27
- Bridging assets are ~$0.05
Despite all these big swings, the volatility persists. YCharts data shows that at the start of the year, the average fee was actually pretty high at $1, then dropped to $0.30, shot up to $2.60, and fell as low as $0.18. All these wild swings only make the case for something to smooth out the ride, and that’s where Buterin’s futures market comes in.
If it gets implemented, the futures system would be a big deal for Ethereum – it would give businesses and heavy users a safety net against those unpredictable cost cycles.
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