Q2 2026 — Pyth Core Onchain Fees

Ideas Bank
1

Background

Following the successful implementation of OP-PIP-93: Q1 2026 Pyth Core Fee Implementation, the Pythian Council continues its quarterly mandate to review and adjust on-chain fees for Pyth products.

This post outlines the proposed fee adjustments for Q2 2026 across all EVM chains where Pyth Core is deployed.

Q1 2026 Recap

The Q1 fee implementation successfully established protocol fees across 70 EVM chains. Key outcomes:

  • Fees were set targeting approximately $0.01 per price update

  • Activity levels normalized post-implementation as expected

  • Revenue generation began across previously fee-free chains

Q2 2026 Adjustments Rationale

Since Q1 implementation, several factors necessitate fee adjustments:

  1. Token Price Volatility: Many native tokens have experienced significant price movements, causing current fees to drift below target

  2. Target Recalibration: Moving from $0.01 toward $0.015 target to better reflect oracle value and buffer against volatility

  3. Cross-Chain Consistency: Ensuring chains sharing the same native token have identical fee structures

  4. New Chain Coverage: Adding fees for newly deployed chains (MegaETH)

  5. Migration Acceleration: As outlined in OP-PIP-100, Pyth Core is being deprecated in favor of Pyth Pro by Q3 2026. Progressively increasing Core fees incentivizes migration to Pro, which offers superior latency and reliability while generating significantly higher protocol revenue. Higher Core fees make Pro subscriptions comparatively more attractive, accelerating the transition timeline.

Fee Structure Principles

Unchanged from Q1:

  • Per-feed model: Fees apply to each individual price feed

  • Per-update charges: Each feed update incurs a fee

  • Proportionality: Fees remain reasonable relative to overall transaction costs

  • Cross-chain parity: Same token = same fee across chains

Proposed Fee Schedule

  1. ETH-Denominated Chains

All ETH chains moving to 0.000005 ETH (~$0.01 at current prices):

Blockchain Existing Fee New Fee Note
Abstract 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Arbitrum 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Aurora 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Base 0.0000015 0.000005 Fees increased
Blast 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Boba 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Ethereum 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Eventum 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Fuel 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Hemi 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Ink 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Linea 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Manta 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
MegaETH 0.000000000000000001 0.000005 New chain
Mode 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Morph 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Optimism 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Polygon zkEVM 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Polynomial 0.0000015 0.000005 Fees increased
Scroll 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Skate 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Soneium 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Superseed 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Swellchain 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Taiko 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Unichain 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
Worldchain 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
zkSync Era 0.000003 0.000005 Fees increased
  1. Native Token Chains — Fee Adjustments
Blockchain Existing Fee New Fee Token Note
Avalanche 0.0005 0.002 AVAX Fees increased
Berachain 0.003 0.025 BERA Fees increased
BNB 0.0000125 0.00002 BNB Fees increased
Celo 0.1 0.2 CELO Fees increased
Conflux 0.1 0.25 CFX Fees increased
Core DAO 0.02 0.2 CORE Fees increased
Cronos 0.06 0.2 CRO Fees increased
Cronos zkEVM 0.06 0.2 CRO Fees increased
Etherlink 0.01 0.05 XTZ Fees increased
Filecoin 0.01 0.02 FIL Fees increased
Flow 0.1 0.5 FLOW Fees increased
Gravity 1 2.5 G Fees increased
Hedera 0.01 0.2 HBAR Fees increased
HyperEVM 0.0001 0.0003 HYPE Fees increased
Injective EVM 0.001 0.005 INJ Fees increased
Injective inEVM 0.001 0.005 INJ Fees increased
Iota EVM 0.1 0.2 IOTA Fees increased
Kava 0.15 0.3 KAVA Fees increased
Lightlink 1 5 LL Fees increased
Merlin 0.0000001 0.0000002 BTC Fees increased
Meter 0.04 0.5 MTR Fees increased
Mezo 0.0000001 0.0000002 BTC Fees increased
Monad 0.005 0.01 MON Fees increased
Neon 0.15 0.5 NEON Fees increased
opBNB 0.0000125 0.00002 BNB Fees increased
Ronin 0.1 0.2 RON Fees increased
Sei EVM 0.1 0.25 SEI Fees increased
Story 0.006 0.03 IP Fees increased
WEMIX 0.03 0.1 WEMIX Fees increased
Zetachain 0.1 0.3 ZETA Fees increased
  1. Chains — No Change
Blockchain Fee Token Note
Apechain 0.2 APE Fees unchanged
Bittensor 0.00005 TAO Fees unchanged
BTTC 25000 BTT Fees unchanged
Chiliz 0.33 CHZ Fees unchanged
Kaia 0.2 KAIA Fees unchanged
KCC 0.001 KCS Fees unchanged
Mantle 0.01 MNT Fees unchanged
Polygon 0.1 POL Fees unchanged
Shimmer 100 SMR Fees unchanged
Sonic (EVM) 0.000000000000000001 S Fees unchanged*

*Sonic fees remain at minimum due to participation in the Sonic Fee M program, which generates protocol revenue based on contract activity.

3 Likes
[ONGOING] OP-PIP-112: Pyth Core Fees - Q2
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Activity Data

Historical activity data for all chains is available in the public spreadsheet, covering monthly price updates from January 2025 through March 2026.

Chain-by-Chain Analysis

Below is detailed analysis for chains with significant activity, revenue generation, or notable fee adjustments.

Monad → 0.01 MON

Monad has emerged as one of the highest-activity chains for Pyth Core, with ~45M price updates in Q1 2026 alone. Activity has remained stable at 11-17M updates per month since mainnet launch.

With the current fee of 0.005 MON, the per-update cost sits below target. Doubling to 0.01 MON brings fees in line with the $0.01-0.015 target range.

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Sonic (EVM) → Unchanged (1 wei)

Sonic (EVM) maintains consistently high activity at ~15M updates in Q1 2026. The fee remains at minimum (1 wei) due to participation in the Sonic Fee M program, which generates sustained protocol revenue based on contract activity rather than direct protocol fees.

Fee M has generated approximately $800/month in S token rewards for the DAO. This arrangement continues to provide value while maintaining high oracle usage on the chain.

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Berachain → 0.025 BERA

Berachain saw explosive growth following mainnet, peaking at 15.8M updates in January 2026. Activity moderated significantly in February/March following the Q1 fee implementation.

The BERA token has declined ~85% from ATH, causing the current 0.003 BERA fee to fall well below the $0.01 target (~$0.0015). Increasing to 0.025 BERA restores the target pricing at current token values.

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HyperEVM → 0.0003 HYPE

HyperEVM has shown consistent growth throughout the year, reaching 512K updates in Q1 2026. The chain benefits from Hyperliquid’s active DeFi ecosystem.

With HYPE at ~$35, the current 0.0001 HYPE fee yields only ~$0.0036/update. Increasing to 0.0003 HYPE brings this to ~$0.01, providing appropriate headroom for token volatility.

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Cronos → 0.2 CRO

Cronos activity has grown steadily, reaching 1.1M updates in Q1 2026 — a 50% increase from Q4 2025. This makes it one of the stronger-performing chains in terms of growth trajectory.

CRO price (~$0.07) means the current 0.06 CRO fee only generates ~$0.0042/update. The increase to 0.2 CRO brings this to ~$0.014, aligned with target. Cronos zkEVM receives the same adjustment for cross-chain consistency.

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Base → 0.000005 ETH

Base remains one of the most active ETH L2s for Pyth, though Q1 2026 showed some volatility in update volume.

Base previously had a discounted fee (0.0000015 ETH) compared to other ETH chains. This adjustment aligns Base with the standard 0.000005 ETH fee across all ETH-denominated chains for consistency.

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Avalanche → 0.002 AVAX

Avalanche was part of the first cohort of chains with established fees. The chain generates consistent activity around 30K updates/month.

With AVAX at ~$9, the current 0.0005 AVAX fee yields only ~$0.0045/update. The increase to 0.002 AVAX brings this to ~$0.018, providing buffer against further price volatility.

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Core DAO → 0.2 CORE

Core DAO has seen substantial activity decline throughout 2025-2026, but maintains a base level of usage.

The CORE token has declined significantly (~96% from highs), causing the current 0.02 CORE fee to yield only ~$0.0005/update — far below target. The 10x increase to 0.2 CORE restores target pricing at ~$0.005, still below the ideal range but more appropriate given market conditions.

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Injective EVM → 0.005 INJ

Injective EVM saw explosive growth in March 2026, jumping from ~240K to 2.1M updates — likely driven by new protocol deployments.

With INJ at ~$2.80, the current 0.001 INJ fee yields only ~$0.0028/update. The increase to 0.005 INJ brings this to ~$0.014, appropriate for the growing activity. Injective inEVM receives the same adjustment for consistency.

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Mezo → 0.0000002 BTC

Mezo has emerged as a strong performer, growing from 28K updates in January to 45K in March 2026 — a 60% increase quarter-over-quarter.

The current 0.0000001 BTC fee yields ~$0.0067/update at BTC ~$67K. Doubling to 0.0000002 BTC brings this to ~$0.013, within target range. Merlin receives the same adjustment for BTC-denominated consistency.

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Next Steps

This proposal focuses on fee structure discussion. Following community input:

  1. Finalize fee schedule based on feedback

  2. Submit OP-PIP for formal vote

  3. Implement via Wormhole governance execution

We welcome input from all stakeholders:

  • Publishers

  • Oracle users

  • Committed Pythians

Your insights will be valuable in refining this proposal and guiding the DAO’s decision-making process.

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4

Since the original post, a few things have shifted:

  1. Token prices moved — some native tokens have rallied (looking at you, APE), others drifted. The USD-denominated fees were getting out of whack with the ~$0.01-0.015 target.

  2. Direct feedback — got some input from integrators and council members on specific chains. A few adjustments made sense.

  3. Polynomial deprecated — chain is effectively deprecated, removing from the proposal.

Below are the revised tables. Goal is to get this implemented by early May.

  1. ETH-Denominated Chains

Settling on 0.000004 ETH (~$0.009 at current prices), this is slightly more conservative than the original 0.000005 proposal but still represent a 33% price increase.

Blockchain Existing Fee New Fee Note
Abstract 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Arbitrum 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Aurora 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Base 0.0000015 0.000004 Increased
Blast 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Boba 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Ethereum 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Eventum 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Fuel 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Hemi 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Ink 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Linea 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Manta 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
MegaETH 1 wei 0.000004 New chain
Mode 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Morph 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Optimism 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Polygon zkEVM 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Polynomial 0.0000015 -– Deprecated
Scroll 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Skate 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Soneium 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Superseed 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Swellchain 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Taiko 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Unichain 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
Worldchain 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
zkSync Era 0.000003 0.000004 Increased
  1. Native Token Chains — Fee Adjustments

No changes from original proposal here.

Blockchain Existing Fee New Fee Token ~USD
Avalanche 0.0005 0.002 AVAX $0.018
Berachain 0.003 0.025 BERA $0.009
BNB 0.0000125 0.00002 BNB $0.013
Celo 0.1 0.2 CELO $0.018
Conflux 0.1 0.25 CFX $0.015
Core DAO 0.02 0.2 CORE $0.008
Cronos 0.06 0.2 CRO $0.014
Cronos zkEVM 0.06 0.2 CRO $0.014
Etherlink 0.01 0.05 XTZ $0.018
Filecoin 0.01 0.02 FIL $0.018
Flow 0.1 0.5 FLOW $0.019
Gravity 1 2.5 G $0.010
Hedera 0.01 0.2 HBAR $0.018
HyperEVM 0.0001 0.0003 HYPE $0.013
Injective EVM 0.001 0.005 INJ $0.018
Injective inEVM 0.001 0.005 INJ $0.018
Iota EVM 0.1 0.2 IOTA $0.011
Kava 0.15 0.3 KAVA $0.018
Merlin 0.0000001 0.0000002 BTC $0.016
Mezo 0.0000001 0.0000002 BTC $0.016
Monad 0.005 0.01 MON $0.0003
opBNB 0.0000125 0.00002 BNB $0.013
Ronin 0.1 0.2 RON $0.020
Sei EVM 0.1 0.25 SEI $0.015
WEMIX 0.03 0.1 WEMIX $0.024
Zetachain 0.1 0.3 ZETA $0.016
  1. Previously “No Change” — Some Adjusted

A few chains from the original “unchanged” list needed tweaks based on price movements:

Blockchain Existing Fee New Fee Token ~USD Note
Apechain 0.2 0.1 APE $0.014 Reduced — APE rallied
Kaia 0.2 0.3 KAIA $0.014 Increased
Mantle 0.01 0.02 MNT $0.013 Increased
Polygon 0.1 0.15 POL $0.014 Increased
Bittensor 0.00005 0.00005 TAO $0.012 Unchanged
BTTC 25000 25000 BTT $0.008 Unchanged
Chiliz 0.33 0.33 CHZ $0.016 Unchanged
Shimmer 100 100 SMR ~$0.005 Unchanged
Sonic 1 wei 1 wei S ~$0 Fee M program

Let me know if anything looks off. Otherwise planning to move this to a formal OP-PIP for council vote by early May.