Ethereum L2s has been asked to adopt a responsive pricing model

TLDR

Offchain Labs says Ethereum's layer two network needs responsive pricing to handle rising demand and mitigate gas fee changes. Edward Felton says gas price volatility still serves as a major buffer against network congestion. Arbitrum One introduced variable pricing in January to better align fees with infrastructure bottlenecks. Data presented at EthCC 2026 shows that Arbitrum has lower fees during peak demand periods compared to some of its competitors. Arbitrum One is locked in at $15.2 billion in total value, while Base will get $10.9 billion, according to L2beat.

Ethereum's layer-2 networks will need responsive pricing to accommodate future demand, Offchain Labs said at EthCC 2026. Edward Felton said gas tariff congestion would still protect networks by congesting them but protect end users. As the infrastructure remains stable, Ethereum L2s are urged to synchronize prices with real bottlenecks.

Ethereum L2s push responsive pricing to manage congestion

Felton says that gas leaks are a major deterrent during heavy traffic and can quickly add up to costs. But he argued that responsive pricing would allow for more transactions at lower fees without overwhelming systems. And so he said.[With responsive pricing]You can see more traffic at lower gas prices without increasing infrastructure.

He explained that the Ethereum EIP-1559 update will improve the payment market in August 2021. The reform changed the gas cap mechanism and burned a portion of each transaction fee. Still, the volatility of gas continues, and consumers do not accept unexpected costs.

Felton presented charts comparing arbitrage and base at periods of high demand. The data shows that Arbitrum gas charges are significantly lower compared to networks using only EIP-1559. Arbitrum said it adopted flexible pricing in January to align payments with system bottlenecks.

Arbitrum described the change as a platform direction for discretionary payments. The network aims to match prices to real infrastructure problems, he said. Felton said the release marked one of the first live tests of this pricing model.

Arbitrum and Base test new payment structures

Arbitrage One has locked in the Tier-2 market at a total value of $15.2 billion. Coinbase's base is $10.9 billion per TVL, according to L2beat data. In total, L2 networks will secure more than $39.7 billion, representing an annual increase of 4.6%.

Julian Kors, founder of Pulsar Space, said the cost of the reactant would reduce the projection compared to EIP-1559. Networks must choose between mechanical design purity and real-time efficiency, he said. He told Cointelegraph, “EIP-1559 does the former well. Responsive pricing leans towards the latter.”

Jerome de Taichey, president of Ethereum France, said responsive pricing could improve user experience. The model will ensure that payments more closely reflect actual demand, he said. However, he did not say that it will eliminate volatility.

Cyprin Grau, project leader at Status Network, called the model “a real improvement in payment accuracy.” However, the system is still based on a payment market that can produce sharps, he said. “It will not solve the structural problem,” he added.

Gray says L2 gas charges will go to zero as the scale improves and competition grows. Responsive pricing will correct the decline but will not replace the gas model, he said. He added that future L2s should completely remove gas from the user experience.

The debate continues as Ethereum revisits the cluster-focused scaling thesis. In February, Vitalik Buterin said some layer-2 assumptions no longer hold. He said the scale of the future would have to rely more on the mainnet and native rolls.