Ethereum Mainnet Shatters Records with 2.2 Million Daily Transactions as Fees Plummet

Ethereum has reached a watershed moment: the mainnet processed 2,201,457 daily transactions while average fees fell to just $0.17. According to data verified by Company Cointelegraph and first reported on Company BitcoinWorld, this milestone reflects cumulative gains from multiple protocol upgrades and ecosystem improvements across 2024 and early 2025.

The record day eclipsed the prior high of 1.97 million transactions recorded in 2021, signaling sustained throughput growth rather than a momentary spike. Over 7,125 blocks were produced that day with an average block time of 12.1 seconds, and a peak TPS approaching 68. Monthly averages for 2025 show ~15% quarter-over-quarter growth in transaction volume, demonstrating material traction across decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and layer-2 activity.

Breaking down the activity: DeFi accounted for roughly 41% of transactions (a 34% month-over-month increase), NFT marketplaces contributed about 18%, layer-2 bridging and settlements made up 22%, and the remainder comprised smart contract interactions and ETH transfers. These distribution shifts highlight a maturing, multi-layered ecosystem where mainnet resources are used more efficiently alongside off-chain execution.

Fees have dropped dramatically—a roughly 92% reduction from six months ago—despite rising demand. This counterintuitive outcome is attributable to protocol-level optimizations introduced by recent upgrades. Notable technical changes include gas cost reductions from EIP-7702, increased blob storage efficiency, validator optimizations that reduce orphaned blocks, and improved state management. Together, these improvements reduce computational overhead and increase block data availability.

Practical user benefits are significant: a standard ERC-20 transfer now averages $0.12 (vs. ~$3.80 in early 2024) and complex DeFi operations that once cost $25–$50 now typically run between $1.20–$2.50. Such economics open the door to microtransactions and repetitive on-chain interactions that previously were uneconomical.

Two named upgrades were central to this advance. The Pectra execution-layer upgrade (Q4 2024) improved EVM parallelism and memory management, raising theoretical throughput without sacrificing decentralization. The Fusaka consensus-layer upgrade (Q1 2025) introduced dynamic validator committees, better attestation aggregation, an enhanced fork choice rule, and streamlined validator lifecycle management—collectively enabling validators to handle higher loads more efficiently.

Network health metrics corroborate the narrative: staking now secures ~42 million ETH (~35% of circulating supply), execution and consensus client diversity metrics improved to ~68% and 72% respectively, and layer-2 networks process roughly 75% of Ethereum-related transactions off-chain while settling proofs on-chain. Layer-2s are contributing >$850,000 in daily fee revenue to the mainnet while providing near-instant finality for users.

Broader implications are profound. Developers can design business models with new economic assumptions, enterprises face lower operational costs in blockchain pilots, and Ethereum's institutional stance is strengthened—factors that could influence ETF considerations and traditional financial integrations. Looking ahead, planned evolutions such as Verkle trees, single-slot finality research, expanded account abstraction, and cross-rollup interoperability promise further efficiency and usability gains.

Conclusion: The 2.2 million transaction day and sub-$0.20 average fee illustrate that sustained protocol evolution—rather than wholesale replacement—can successfully tackle the scalability trilemma. For users, builders, and institutions, this milestone signals a more accessible and capable Ethereum network ready to support a wider array of applications.