On-chain activity across major blockchain networks experienced a sharp acceleration over the past week, with NEAR Protocol leading the pack with a staggering 158% surge in transaction volume. Data analytics firm Nansen shared a chart highlighting the top chains by transaction growth, revealing a broader trend of increased network engagement beyond a single leader.
According to Nansen's data for the seven-day period ending December 29, 2025, NEAR's growth significantly outpaced other major networks. The chart showed NEAR combining rising transaction counts with a steady increase in active addresses, indicating genuine usage growth rather than isolated spikes. Following NEAR, Plasma saw a 28% increase, Aptos grew by 22%, Stellar recorded a 14% rise, and Ethereum posted a 10% gain in transactions.
This weekly surge aligns with a broader structural shift observed throughout December, where scaling upgrades enabled higher throughput alongside lower fees on several networks. Ethereum transactions rose 16% month-over-month while fee revenue fell 57%, aided by a prior gas limit increase and the December Fusaka upgrade which introduced PeerDAS to expand data availability. Similarly, Polygon saw an 82% jump in transactions with a 47% drop in fees following its Madhugiri hard fork.
The data also revealed divergent trends. While rollups like Arbitrum demonstrated stable fee economics under load and Avalanche grew from stablecoin and institutional use cases, other major networks faced declines. BNB Chain transactions plunged 79%, Base activity fell 75%, and Solana posted a 21% month-on-month decrease in transactions despite remaining the busiest network overall. This occurred within a stagnant market context, with total crypto capitalization hovering between $2.9 trillion and $3.1 trillion throughout December.
