Ethereum active addresses surpass major L2s as fees drop to pennies

Active addresses on the Ethereum network have overtaken major layer 2s, with the number of active addresses exceeding 791,000 on Monday — higher than networks such as Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, according to data from Nansen. The network has seen a 71% increase in active addresses from about 460,000 a year ago, and daily transactions have been hitting record highs.

On Tuesday there were 2.1 million transactions on Ethereum with an average transaction fee of $0.15, and average fees were reported at $0.15 on Monday — down from highs near $11 a year earlier, according to Etherscan and Nansen. Developers point to protocol upgrades and larger rollup capacity as contributors to lower costs.

The Pectra upgrade in May increased blob capacity to help rollups post data more cheaply, and the Fusaka upgrade — activated on Dec. 3, 2025 — added Peer Data Availability Sampling so validators can verify transactions using small samples of blobs. Token Terminal reported a record 8.7 million new smart contracts published on Ethereum in Q4 2025, even as competition from other layer 1s such as Solana and BNB Chain continues.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on X that the network must reach a point where developers can “walk away,” outlining factors such as full quantum resistance, vastly scalable architecture, durable state design, a general-purpose account model, a long-lived proof-of-stake model and block-building resistant to centralization.

Key Topics

Crypto, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Pectra