Study: Ethereum builders got $5.24 per $1 of burned ETH

Blockchain data provider Bitquery reported that Ethereum builders received about $5.24 in receipts for every $1 of ETH burned in a 30-day sample verified on Aug. 31, 2026. The study’s allocation of measured arbitrage surplus put 49.3% toward block assembly, 9.4% to burned fees and 41.3% to trading operators.

Bitquery’s analysis focuses on sampled arbitrage surplus rather than total Ethereum revenue. The dataset identifies a 30-day measurement window but does not list explicit daily start and end dates; a separate monthly trade-distribution table in the same dataset ends Aug. 29, 2026. The five-to-one ratio is derived from the rounded allocation shares and applies to the sampled surplus only.

Arbitrage activity on Ethereum typically involves searchers, software or participants that buy tokens where prices are lower and sell where prices are higher. When multiple searchers pursue the same opportunity, competition to place a transaction in the correct block position can convert part of the trading gain into payments for inclusion.

Under the block-building arrangement described in the report, builders collect transactions and bundles, construct candidate blocks and bid for validators’ blockspace through relays. Builders commonly designate a builder address as the block’s fee recipient and may include a transaction that pays ETH to the validator’s chosen recipient within the same block.

Bitquery’s figures count incoming payments to builders but do not measure how much of those receipts are forwarded to proposers. The dataset does not match builder receipts to subsequent onward transfers to validators. A separate academic definition referenced in the report calculates builder profit as direct payments plus priority fees minus the payment sent to the proposer, which isolates retained block revenue.

The study notes a distinction between EIP-1559 base fees, which the protocol burns, and priority fees, which go to validators or other recipients for transaction inclusion. Base-fee burn adjusts with gas use relative to the block target and operates independently from inclusion payments tied to profitable trading positions. Measuring burned ETH against newly issued ETH over the same period is the relevant comparison for assessing supply change.

Bitquery applied filters that limit reported surplus to the capital committed in each transaction and used wallet reconciliation that can lower apparent earnings. The dataset’s decoding of venue activity is incomplete, which can omit some trades or misattribute flows. An annual comparison in the report covers Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, Arbitrum and Polygon for the 12 months through Aug. 29, 2026; Optimism and Solana were excluded and the analysis used fixed reference prices that differ from the monthly series.

The report states that matching sampled trading payments to onward proposer transfers, consistent coverage across periods, and full accounting would be required to determine how reported shares change over time or to compare retained receipts and burned ETH against issuance for holders.