Ethereum mainnet averages record 2.16M daily transactions in 2026

Ethereum’s main network is busier than it has ever been. The mainnet averaged a record 2.16 million daily transactions in 2026, alongside 899,000 daily active addresses.

The activity surge arrived alongside a steep drop in costs and a sharp fall in fee revenue. That mix raises a real question about what heavy usage is actually worth to the network’s holders.

The numbers behind the record

A separate research tally covering January through October 2026 put the mainnet average at approximately 2.17 million daily transactions. That figure represents a 54% increase from the prior year.

Cost is the clearest driver in the data. Median transaction fees dropped from 35 cents to 3.5 cents, a tenfold reduction over the period.

The base layer is only part of the picture. Layer-2 networks, which are separate chains that bundle transactions and settle them back to Ethereum to ease congestion, averaged 23.3 million daily transactions over the same stretch.

Combined, the broader Ethereum ecosystem handled roughly 25 million daily transactions. The mainnet still matters, but most of the day-to-day traffic now runs on the roads built on top of it.

Stablecoins are doing the heavy lifting

Stablecoins, the dollar-pegged tokens that crypto users treat as digital cash, were a major engine of the mainnet’s growth. Stablecoin transfers on Ethereum’s main chain totaled $25.8 trillion from January to October 2026.

That total was up 61% year over year.

The revenue problem nobody ordered

Total fees paid on the mainnet fell by about 58% year over year, coming in at roughly 67,665 ETH over the 10-month period.

The research ties the lower fee take to net growth in ETH supply, even as transaction counts climbed.

Momentum check: recent activity has cooled

As of late October and early November 2026, daily mainnet activity stood at around 1.8 million transactions.

Daily active addresses in that window were approximately 535,000. Both figures sit well below the year’s averages of 2.16 million transactions and 899,000 addresses.

Background: a chain that outsourced its traffic

For years, Ethereum’s scaling plan centered on pushing activity to layer-2 networks so the base chain could act as a secure settlement layer. The 2026 data shows that plan in action, with layer-2s processing roughly ten times the mainnet’s daily transaction count.

What this means for ETH and the wider ecosystem

If a network grows by becoming cheaper, its revenue per transaction shrinks, and the 58% fee decline shows that volume alone has not filled the gap.

Stablecoins are the variable to watch. A 61% jump to $25.8 trillion in mainnet transfers indicates that Ethereum is becoming core infrastructure for dollar-denominated settlement.

With roughly 25 million daily transactions across the ecosystem, the fight is less about whether Ethereum gets used and more about where value is captured: on the base chain, on the layer-2s, or by the stablecoin issuers moving trillions across them.