Onchain metrics indicate Ethereum’s daily transaction count has surged to over 1.7 million, fueled by Ether’s rally toward the $5 000 milestone. Data from Nansen shows a steady increase in base-layer activity as decentralized finance and token transfers accelerate, underscoring renewed demand for on-chain settlement.
Despite robust growth in raw transaction numbers, Ethereum’s revenue from network fees has diminished. Layer-2 scaling solutions such as Arbitrum and Base recorded 3.4 million and 8.6 million transactions respectively, siphoning off a substantial portion of user traffic originally routed through the base layer. Competing layer-1 networks including Aptos also outperformed Ethereum on transaction counts, hosting 3.8 million transactions in a single day.
The shift in usage is largely driven by fee differentials. The Dencun upgrade, deployed in March 2024, optimised data availability costs and incentivised migrations to layer-2 networks, where users routinely save up to 90 percent on gas fees during peak demand periods. High-throughput chains like Solana and Sui further challenge Ethereum by offering sub-cent transaction costs and sub-second finality, attracting both retail and institutional participants.
Active Ethereum addresses remain relatively stable between 400 000 and 600 000, with occasional spikes during major token listings and airdrop events. In contrast, layer-2 ecosystems have exhibited more dynamic user growth, with Base onboarding over 1 million unique addresses within months of its launch. Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron has cautioned against direct performance comparisons, warning that chasing bandwidth may undermine Ethereum’s core strengths in decentralization and security.
Stakeholders in the Ethereum ecosystem are evaluating strategic responses, including further fee market refinement, enhanced interoperability protocols, and expanded rollup-centric decentralization. As the industry trades off immediate cost savings against long-term network value accrual, Ethereum’s community must balance growth objectives with the imperative to maintain robust base-layer security and decentralised governance.
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