Ethereum Gas Fees Stay at Just $0.01 While Transactions Hit 1.6 Million 

• Ethereum transaction fees remain near all-time lows at around $0.01 per transaction
• Network activity surges to 1.6 million daily transactions, the highest since early October
• Token swaps and NFT trades also benefit from cheaper gas costs
• Dencun and Pectra upgrades drive scalability and reduce congestion
• Layer-2 (L2) networks see a 50% fee drop after capacity expansion
• Ethereum continues proving itself as a mature, scalable infrastructure for global applications

Ethereum is showing one of the strongest signs of maturity in its history — record-high activity levels combined with record-low fees. Despite handling over 1.6 million daily transactions, average gas fees remain at around $0.01, signaling that the network’s long-term scalability plans are finally working as intended.

According to blockchain data aggregator Milkroad, Ethereum’s transaction fees are currently sitting at 0.16 gwei, which equals roughly one cent per transaction. Even more complex activities such as token swaps cost about $0.15, while NFT transactions average around $0.27. These numbers are near historical lows and showcase a sharp contrast to previous bull market cycles when transaction costs often surged to $50 or more during peak demand.

The low gas environment reflects Ethereum’s ongoing infrastructure evolution. In the past, network congestion led to long wait times and massive spikes in transaction fees — often pricing out casual users. However, thanks to a series of upgrades like Dencun and Pectra, Ethereum is now achieving something that many thought impossible: high throughput at consistently low costs.

According to Nansen data, Ethereum’s daily transaction count hit 1.6 million this week, its highest since the October crash. Meanwhile, active wallet addresses reached nearly 700,000, signaling growing confidence and network participation. This steady rise in onchain activity, despite the broader market slowdown, suggests that Ethereum is evolving into a sustainable and cost-efficient ecosystem for real-world applications, including DeFi, NFTs, and enterprise-level solutions.

Much of this improvement can be credited to Ethereum’s recent upgrade cycle. The Pectra upgrade, rolled out in May 2025, doubled the blob capacity of Layer-2 (L2) rollups — significantly increasing data availability and reducing fees by roughly 50% across major L2s like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base. This shift allowed more transactions to move off the mainnet, preventing congestion and maintaining stability even during network surges.

Before Pectra, the Dencun upgrade, launched in March 2024, laid the foundation for this scalability. Dencun’s introduction of proto-danksharding dramatically reduced L2 costs by improving data compression and storage. Within a year, average transaction costs dropped by 95%, marking a new era for Ethereum users.

These combined innovations have transformed Ethereum into a cost-efficient and high-performance blockchain, capable of handling millions of transactions daily without compromising decentralization or security. This stability also paves the way for broader institutional adoption, as businesses can now use Ethereum for payments, gaming, and asset tokenization without worrying about unpredictable gas fees.

As Ethereum continues optimizing its L2 ecosystem and testing future scalability enhancements, analysts believe the network is entering a “steady-state era” — one where it can support global-scale applications while maintaining affordability and efficiency.

Final Thought

Ethereum’s ability to process over 1.6 million daily transactions with gas fees around a single penny highlights how far the network has come. With major upgrades like Dencun and Pectra already paying off, Ethereum is proving that scalability and affordability can coexist — paving the way for mass adoption, real-world integration, and a sustainable onchain economy.