Ethereum just posted 18.7 million transactions in a single week, the highest figure the network has ever recorded. At the same time, the median cost of a transaction fell to $0.008, an all-time low. For context, that’s less than a penny per transaction on the world’s largest smart contract platform.
What’s driving the surge
The record-setting week didn’t come out of nowhere. Ethereum’s daily transaction peaks approached 2.9 million back in January 2026, and the network processed over 200 million transactions in Q1 2026 alone.
The fee collapse traces back to network upgrades activated in 2025. The Pectra and Fusaka upgrades were specifically designed to improve layer-1 scalability and reduce transaction costs.
Stablecoin usage and staking participation have been identified as key drivers of the activity boom.
