## Ethereum L1 Breaks Performance Bottleneck: Daily Transaction Volume Sets 2025 Record

The mainnet layer (L1) of Ethereum has taken an important step forward in scalability. According to official Etherscan data, the network completed 1.91 million transactions in a recent single day, with an average fee of only $0.16. This data reflects a substantial breakthrough in Ethereum's ecosystem in addressing scalability issues.

## How Two Key Upgrades Changed the Landscape

Ethereum's achievement was not accidental but the result of the combined effects of two major network upgrades.

**Direct Contribution of Fusaka Upgrade**

Earlier this month, the Fusaka upgrade fundamentally transformed Ethereum's L1 infrastructure. This upgrade increased the capacity of a single block by approximately 33%, allowing the network to process more transactions within the same timeframe.

The core innovation of the upgrade is the introduction of the PeerDAS mechanism. This technology changes how nodes verify data—no longer requiring nodes to download and verify all data in a block, but instead sampling and verifying only parts of it. Ethereum compares large data packets (called "blobs") to sidecar trailers hanging on the block, which transmit data at a lower cost and do not compete for space with regular transactions.

**Pectra Upgrade's Paving Role**

As early as the Pectra upgrade released in May, the Ethereum team prepared for this moment. The upgrade optimized the interaction logic between Layer 2 networks (such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base) and the main chain. Before the upgrade, each block could hold up to 3 data sidecar trailers; after the upgrade, this number doubled to 6.

This significantly reduced the cost of settling Layer 2 networks on Ethereum, alleviating transaction congestion across the ecosystem.

## Substantial Improvement in User Experience

From the user's perspective, these technological advances translate into tangible benefits—high throughput combined with extremely low gas fees. This breaks the traditional blockchain dilemma of "either expensive or slow," allowing ordinary users to avoid being pushed out of the network due to high transaction costs.

## Scalability Tasks Are Far from Complete

Despite impressive data, Ethereum's scalability journey remains challenging.

The ecosystem's fragmentation issue persists. Users transferring assets between different Layer 2 solutions rely on complex cross-chain bridging protocols, which reduces the smoothness of user experience.

Deeper issues lie in the continuous growth of network state data (such as account balances, smart contracts, and full databases). Over time, this data set could reach terabyte (TB) or even petabyte (PB) levels. At that point, ordinary users wishing to run nodes independently may need to configure extremely costly hardware, further raising the barrier to participation.