Ethereum daily transactions rise 34% to 2M as fees drop 34% to $344M

Ethereum mainnet saw record network usage in Q1 2026, processing 200.4 million transactions, up 43% from Q4 2025, with daily activity often above 2 million and a peak of 2.897 million. However, fee revenue fell 34% year-over-year to $344 million as the Dencun upgrade and blob transactions sharply reduced costs, especially for Layer-2 activity. Stablecoin transfers were a major driver, reaching $8 trillion in Q4 2025. The article frames this as a bullish adoption signal for ETH, but also a bearish development for the token’s fee-burn and deflationary narrative, since lower fees reduce burn pressure. It also highlights that Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism are capturing more transaction volume, shifting value capture away from Ethereum mainnet toward L2 ecosystems.