Ethereum is achieving unprecedented network efficiency, processing more transactions than ever before while users pay the lowest fees in the network's modern history. This milestone, a reversal of its long-standing scalability challenges, is attributed to recent major protocol upgrades and a surge in stablecoin adoption.
The seven-day moving average of transactions on Ethereum is nearing 2.5 million, a record high that nearly doubles the figure from one year ago. Transaction activity has seen a significant surge since mid-December 2025, reversing a slow decline that began in mid-2025. Concurrently, average gas fees have collapsed to historic lows. Data from The Block shows average transaction costs around $0.15, while Etherscan data pegs estimated fees for a swap as low as $0.04.
This combination of peak activity and minimal cost marks a turning point for Ethereum, which has historically faced criticism for high, unpredictable fees that priced out smaller users during congestion periods like the 2021 bull market and 2024 NFT boom, when fees could reach $50 or more.
The dramatic improvement is driven by a series of technical upgrades. The Fusaka hard fork, which went live seven weeks prior, introduced Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) and initiated a new twice-a-year upgrade schedule. The subsequent "Blob Parameters Only" fork on January 8, 2026, increased the blob target to 14 and the maximum cap to 21, significantly reducing data costs for Layer 2 rollups.
Furthermore, Ethereum's block gas limit was raised from 45 million to 60 million in late November 2025, a 100% increase from the start of the year. As execution has increasingly shifted to Layer 2 networks, demand for mainnet blockspace has eased even as overall on-chain activity climbs.
The activity spike coincides with record stablecoin usage, which now accounts for 35% to 40% of all Ethereum transactions according to Standard Chartered. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's Global Head of Digital Assets Research, declared "2026 will be the year of Ethereum." Staking activity has also reached new highs, with over 36 million ETH (roughly 30% of circulating supply) locked in staking contracts. The entry queue has swelled to over 2.5 million ETH, its highest level since August 2023.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently stated that 2026 will be the year the community works to combat the "backsliding" of personal autonomy in crypto, emphasizing blockchain privacy and user experience. He declared, "Every compromise of values that Ethereum has made up to this point... we are making that compromise no longer." Buterin also noted that the original Web3 architecture, first outlined in 2014, is now a functional reality.
Market data reflects this fundamental strength. At press time, ETH was trading at $3,319.87, maintaining a steady climb. In contrast, its primary rival SOL was trading at $142.26, down over the same period. The shift has altered the competitive landscape, as Ethereum now offers similarly low fees to Solana, shifting the comparison from cost to architectural priorities like security and decentralization.
