Ethereum Surges to 1.6 Million Daily Transactions as Gas Fees Drop to $0.01
Ethereum’s network activity surged this week, recording 1.6 million daily transactions on Tuesday — the highest level in nearly a month. The spike marks a strong recovery after October’s market crash, which triggered an estimated $19 billion in liquidations across the crypto market.
Despite the increase in activity, transaction fees stayed at historic lows, highlighting Ethereum’s improved scalability and network efficiency following recent protocol upgrades.
According to blockchain analytics platform Milkroad, average gas fees on Ethereum hovered around 0.16 gwei, or roughly $0.01 per transaction.
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Token swaps cost slightly more at around $0.15,
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while NFT sales averaged $0.27 per transaction.
These ultra-low fees signal a significant improvement compared to past periods of high demand, where gas prices would often surge exponentially and price out smaller users.
Active Addresses Reach Monthly Highs
Data from Nansen shows that active Ethereum addresses peaked at 695,872 on Saturday, setting a new monthly high. Notably, this surge in user activity occurred without the typical spike in fees that once plagued the network during high-volume periods.
This trend underscores Ethereum’s ongoing transformation into a more scalable and cost-efficient ecosystem, capable of handling higher throughput without compromising user experience.
Pectra Upgrade Drives Layer-2 Efficiency
A major factor behind this improvement is the Pectra upgrade, rolled out in May 2025. The update doubled blob capacity for Layer-2 networks, effectively reducing L2 transaction fees by around 50%. By enabling more transactions to be processed off the mainnet, Pectra further lowers costs and enhances overall network performance.
This upgrade is part of Ethereum’s broader roadmap to support mass adoption through Layer-2 scaling solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, which continue to drive user activity and transaction volume.
A New Era of Efficient Ethereum Transactions
The current network performance paints a promising picture for Ethereum’s scalability roadmap. With gas fees now as low as one cent per transaction and Layer-2 fees slashed in half, the Ethereum ecosystem appears stronger, more accessible, and ready to compete with newer, low-cost blockchains.
As the market stabilizes post-liquidation, all eyes are on how Ethereum will sustain this momentum — and whether these upgrades mark the beginning of a new efficiency era for the world’s leading smart contract network.
source: CMC News