By allowing people to lock in future gas prices. the system could help traders, developers, and institutions hedge against volatility and better plan operational expenses. The idea comes as Ethereum’s fees, while currently low, continue to swing sharply. Buterin argues that a futures market will not only smooth out these fluctuations but also provide clearer signals about long-term fee expectations.
Buterin Proposes New Way to Stabilize Gas Fees
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin caused fresh discussions about the future of network fees after proposing the creation of a trustless on-chain futures market for gas. The idea was shared in a post on X,and came in response to questions about whether Ethereum can guarantee low and predictable gas fees as adoption scales. Buterin argued that while ongoing roadmap improvements aim to reduce costs, users, developers, and institutions need greater certainty about what they will pay to transact in the months and years ahead.
His proposed solution is similar to how traditional futures markets operate. In commodities like oil, futures contracts let buyers and sellers lock in prices at a later date, reducing uncertainty and helping manage risk. An Ethereum gas futures market would adopt the same principle.
Users could secure a set base fee for a defined future time window, effectively locking in the price of blockspace before they need it. This could allow high-volume users like traders, app developers, and institutions to hedge against volatility and plan operational expenses more accurately.
Buterin explained that such a market would do more than protect against spikes. It would also offer a reliable metric for the ecosystem to understand expectations around future gas costs. This transparency could support better long-term planning for everything from protocol development to application design. A well-functioning on-chain futures system would, in his view, serve as a core financial tool for Ethereum’s maturing economy.
The proposal arrives at a moment when Ethereum gas fees have fallen a lot throughout 2025. Basic transactions currently average around 0.474 gwei, or roughly one cent, according to Etherscan. More complex operations, like token swaps, NFT sales, or bridging assets, cost between $0.05 and $0.27. Despite the overall downtrend, fee levels have stayed unstable.
YTD ETH gas prices (Source: Ycharts)
Data from Ycharts shows that average transaction fees started the year at $1, dipped to $0.18 at their lowest, and spiked to $2.60 at times before settling close to $0.30. For Buterin, this volatility proves why a futures market could become essential infrastructure for Ethereum.
Source: https://coinpaper.com/12927/vitalik-buterin-proposes-on-chain-futures-market-for-gas-fees
