From TGE to Realtime: ETHGas's First 90 Days

⚡ $GWEI Goes Live — January 21, 2026

The quarter opened with our Token Generation Event on January 21st. $GWEI, the governance token of the ETHGas Foundation.

$GWEI launched on Ethereum Mainnet and BNB Smart Chain, and rapidly found listings across 10+ exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, Binance Alpha & Perpetuals, PancakeSwap, Aster, Bithumb, Bitget, MEXC, Gate, KuCoin — cementing early liquidity across both CEX and DEX markets.

Since TGE, $GWEI has traded from its launch-day price of $0.01 on January 21st to an all-time high of $0.12683 on Apr 19th — a 12.7x move in under three months. As of today (Apr 21, 2026), the token is ranked #169 by market cap on CoinGecko, with a circulating market cap of approximately ~$232M, a fully diluted valuation of ~$1.1B.

$GWEI isn't a speculative asset bolted onto the side of the product. It's the governance mechanism for the blockspace market infrastructure layer — giving holders the ability to steer how Ethereum blockspace gets commoditized as the network evolves toward a realtime, gasless future.

The Genesis Harvest airdrop rewarded early community members who had been building up Beans and Gas activity through Season 1 of our quests program. 20,881 addresses received tokens in the initial distribution with an average airdrop of 2,395 GWEI (~$273 as of Apr 21).

We're grateful to every community member who believed in the mission before the token existed. This one was for you.

⛽ Open Gas Launches: First Rebates

The headline product milestone was the launch of Open Gas and the first live rebate cycle.

What is Open Gas? Think of it like a monthly cashback — but for Ethereum gas fees. Users interact with participating DeFi protocols (deposit, stake, provide liquidity), ETHGas tracks those eligible transactions, and at the end of each monthly cycle, users batch-claim their gas back in a single gasless transaction, paid out in WETH.

For users: your gas costs less. For protocols: gas transforms from a friction point into a growth engine.

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In the first two rebate cycles, 6,358 users are eligible for a combined 2.4778 ETH in gas rebates across 5 joined protocols. Humble numbers but every rebate paid out is proof that the infrastructure works, the rails are live, and the mission is real. Gas anxiety as a reason not to use a protocol? That ends here.

The ecosystem is growing. We're excited to announce that Forest Protocol and KIRAPAY are joining Open Gas as protocol partners, expanding the range of actions where users can earn gas back. And we're not stopping at Ethereum mainnet — Open Gas is expanding to BNB Chain, bringing the gasless experience to a new user base and opening the door to multi-chain rebate coverage.

👉 Already using a partner protocol? Check if you have rebates waiting.

🔧 Multi-Relay Support Ships for Validators

In Q1, we also shipped a critical infrastructure upgrade for node operators: Multi-Relay Support.

What does that mean in plain English? Previously, validators running ETHGas had to choose: use ETHGas relays exclusively, or don't use ETHGas at all. A relay is like a middleman that helps validators get the most profitable block to propose, and validators typically want to connect to multiple relays to maximise their block reward potential.

Multi-Relay Support removes that either/or constraint. Validators can now register with ETHGas and connect to any other relay (Titan, Flashbots, or others) simultaneously. The ETHGasPool contract handles fee routing, so payments still land directly in the validator's payout address — no sacrifices, no tradeoffs.

Two configuration options are now live:

• Multi-relay (with ETHGas relays): Full access — Whole Block Market, Preconfirmations Market, and Realtime Market all unlocked.
• Multi-relay (without ETHGas relays): Validators still participate in the Whole Block Market via the ETHGas platform, even if they don't route through ETHGas relays directly.

This upgrade makes it meaningfully easier for any validators — solo stakers to institutional node operators — to join the ETHGas ecosystem without disrupting their existing setup.

📖 Full setup guide for node operators →

🤝 Ecosystem & Partnerships

Q1 laid the groundwork. April delivered the headline.

ether.fi entered Q1 already running validator nodes on the ETHGas Marketplace — an early signal of conviction from one of Ethereum's largest liquid staking operators. In April, that relationship became something much larger.

ETHGas and ether.fi announced a $3 billion commercial deal to advance the development of institutional-grade blockspace markets on Ethereum. (The Block) Specifically, ether.fi will allocate approximately 40% of its current ETH holdings to ETHGas's High Performance Staking Service for a three-year period, and will use ETHGas's preconfirmation platform exclusively during this term.

To put that in context: ether.fi currently manages more than 2.8 million staked ETH — around $6.5 billion at current prices — making it one of the largest validator operators on Ethereum. Their $3B commitment isn't a marketing arrangement. It's validator liquidity — the supply-side foundation that makes a genuine forward market for Ethereum blockspace possible.

As Kevin put it: "Every major commodity market in history has moved from spot to futures. Ethereum blockspace is next."

This deal also validates the thesis that ETHGas's infrastructure unlocks new yield for validators. As ether.fi noted, preconfirmations improve execution certainty for their users, and participating in a structured forward market for blockspace opens yield opportunities that have never existed before.

On the validator side, Lido — the largest liquid staking protocol by ETH staked — has begun onboarding to ETHGas following the multi-relay launch. Early days, and we'll have the full picture in our next update — but the direction is clear. When the infrastructure is right, the right partners follow.

👉 Read the full ether.fi partnership announcement →

🎤 Taking the Realtime Thesis to the World

Q1 wasn't just a shipping quarter — it was ETHGas's loudest quarter yet for earned media and thought leadership. Our founder Kevin and the broader ETHGas Team took the Realtime Ethereum thesis to some of the most respected stages and microphones in crypto.

Nine podcast appearances. Five stages. Across four continents. In one quarter.

The conversations ranged from MEV and blockspace commoditisation to the practical case for a gasless Ethereum — and why 2026 is the year the infrastructure finally caught up to the vision. If you missed any of them, visit the recap links.

1. Panel Discussion - 🌐 Blockspace Forum — Cannes (EthCC[9] week)

2. Panel Discussion - 👨‍💻 Builders Night — Cannes (EthCC[9] week)

3. Podcast -  11am w/ Seed Club https://x.com/11AMdotclub/status/2029648159769837808?s=20

4. Podcast  - Crypto 101 Podcast https://t.co/k2HfHdJYEq

5. Onstage Presentation - 🏔️ETHDenver https://x.com/EthereumDenver/status/2024612930302681392

6. Podcast -  The Defiant https://x.com/DefiantNews/status/2016175287449669919

7. Onstage Presentation - 🇭🇰 Consensus Hong Kong https://t.co/c64MPwWWiD

8. Onstage Presentation - MrBlock Summit https://x.com/mrblock/status/2022150233837515157

9. Podcast - EthStaker Community Call https://www.youtube.com/live/iTgyuzUnYBM?t=657s

10. Podcast - Ethereum Engineering Group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-jP9no7YDk

11. Podcast - The Rollup https://x.com/therollupco/status/2016659701945991419

12. Podcast - DeFi Dad https://x.com/DeFi_Dad/status/2003893638309274025?s=20

13. Podcast - Talking Tokens with Jacquelyn Melinek https://x.com/jacqmelinek/status/2011799293573615755

14. Podcast - Xangle X Spaces https://x.com/i/spaces/1mrxmBwWOgvKy

🏛️ ETHCapital: Where Ethereum Meets Institutional — Seoul, April 2026

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On April 15th in Seoul, ETHGas hosted the inaugural ETHCapital Summit — the first Ethereum conference designed specifically for institutional capital deployment in the APAC region.

14 sessions. 40+ speakers. 1 vision.

Why Seoul? Korea's institutional and retail appetite for Ethereum is unmatched in APAC. ETHCapital is designed to convert that appetite into structured, long-term capital deployment — and ETHGas is building the infrastructure layer that makes Ethereum the obvious choice for that capital.

Featured speakers include Justin Drake (Researcher, Ethereum Foundation) and Joseph Chalom (CEO, Sharplink), alongside leading voices at the intersection of Ethereum and institutional finance.

The day opened with conversations ranging from "From Skepticism to Integration: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead for Institutional Adoption" to "What Initiatives Should the EF Be Prioritising? Playbook to Ethereum's Future in Korea" — topics that would have felt premature two years ago, and feel urgent now. Featured voices included Justin Drake and Adrian Li from the Ethereum Foundation, alongside founders, validators, asset managers, and institutional investors from across the ecosystem.

And it was at ETHCapital where Kevin took to the stage to announce the ether.fi $3B partnership live — making Seoul the moment ETHGas stepped from infrastructure story to institutional headline.

Thank you to every sponsor, speaker, partner, and attendee who made this one-day summit count. The conversation Ethereum needed to have with institutional capital finally has a home.

Q1 was the start. Q2 is about scale.

The Realtime Era is no longer a vision. It's a live token, a $3 billion partnership, gas rebates paid in real ETH, validators onboarding, and a Seoul summit that put Ethereum and institutional capital in the same room. And we're just getting started — Q2 is shaping up to be our biggest quarter yet. We'll let it speak for itself.

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