In 2026, the Ethereum mainnet reached a record average of 2.16 million daily transactions and 899,000 daily active addresses. Data from January through October 2026 shows a 54% increase in daily transactions compared to the previous year, reaching an average of 2.17 million.
The surge in activity coincided with a significant decrease in costs, as median transaction fees fell from 35 cents to 3.5 cents. Consequently, total fees paid on the mainnet dropped by approximately 58% year-over-year, totaling 67,665 ETH during the 10-month period.
Layer-2 networks processed an average of 23.3 million daily transactions, bringing the combined ecosystem volume to roughly 25 million daily transactions. Stablecoin transfers on the mainnet reached $25.8 trillion between January and October 2026, marking a 61% increase.
By late October and early November 2026, daily mainnet activity slowed to approximately 1.8 million transactions with 535,000 daily active addresses. These figures remain below the annual averages, highlighting the shift of traffic toward secondary scaling layers.
