This proposal increases the intrinsic gas configuration for USDT and USDC fee currencies according to measurements taken from Celo Mainnet. This is done in order to better reflect their actual gas consumption and correctly pay the network for the usage.
USDT and USDC are listed as fee currencies on Celo, allowing users to pay transaction fees in these stablecoins. Each fee currency has an individual intrinsicGas parameter configured in the FeeCurrencyDirectory contract, which represents the gas consumed by the creditGasFees and debitGasFees operations, similar to the intrinsic gas that is charged for EIP-1559 transactions.
The current intrinsic gas setting of 50,000 wei for USDT and USDC is insufficient for their actual gas consumption. The protocol currently allows using up to three times the intrinsic gas defined in the contract, but logs such transactions. This allowed us to measure the actual gas usage of USDC and USDT. Detailed measurements are listed below. These measurements make clear that these stablecoin fee payments consistently exceed the current baseline.
This proposal corrects this mismatch by updating the registry with intrinsic gas values that more accurately reflect real-world execution costs. This ensures that stablecoin fee transactions are priced appropriately, preventing systematic undercharging and improving protocol revenue alignment.
Parameter Change:
| Token | Current Intrinsic Gas | Proposed Intrinsic Gas |
|---|---|---|
| USD₮ | 50,000 | 85,000 |
| USDC | 50,000 | 128,000 |
Update USDT intrinsic gas configuration
Remove USDC configuration
You can verify the proposal with the following CLI command:
celocli governance:view --proposalID 283 -n https://forno.celo.org
This proposal carries minimal risk:
setCurrencyConfig function is a standard governance operation that has been used previously for other fee currencies.All data has been obtained from op-geth logs on Celo Mainnet on 2026-01-07. These numbers represent total gas consumed, which is independent of gas pricing.