Ethereum Hits Record 25.9 TPS, 203.9M Q2 Transactions

Ethereum's base layer processed 203.9 million transactions in the second quarter of 2026, a fresh record that pushed average throughput to an all-time high of 25.9 transactions per second, according to Token Terminal's latest network report.

The transaction count marks a 1.7% increase from the first quarter's 200.4 million — itself a record at the time — and a 68.4% jump from the same quarter a year earlier. Together, the two quarters mean Ethereum has now processed roughly 404 million transactions on its base layer through the first half of 2026 alone, a pace that would have been unthinkable for the network a few years ago, when congestion and fee spikes were the more common headline.

Record Activity, Fewer Active Users

The throughput record comes with an odd twist: Ethereum's monthly active user count actually fell roughly 30% quarter-over-quarter to about 9.2 million, even as the network processed more transactions than ever. That's a reversal from the first quarter, when Ethereum notched a record 13.2 million monthly active users, up nearly 86% year-over-year. Read together, the two data points suggest Q2's record throughput was driven by a smaller pool of increasingly active wallets — likely a mix of institutional settlement flow, bot and MEV-related activity, and heavier usage from existing DeFi and stablecoin participants — rather than a broadening of the user base.

That divergence has shown up elsewhere in Ethereum's fundamentals this quarter. Network revenue reportedly jumped sharply even as several major decentralized finance categories cooled, a pattern more consistent with fewer, larger participants transacting more frequently than with genuine organic growth in adoption. It's a nuance that matters for how the data gets read: raw transaction counts and TPS records look unambiguously bullish on their own, but a shrinking active-user base tempers the case that Ethereum's usage story is broadening rather than concentrating.

Stablecoins Still Do the Heavy Lifting

Token Terminal's data also shows Ethereum holding onto its lead in stablecoin value among the major networks it tracks, with roughly $176.8 billion in stablecoins settled on the chain by the end of the quarter — about 61.6% of the combined stablecoin market across the five largest networks in the report. Stablecoin settlement has increasingly become one of Ethereum's most defensible moats even as faster, cheaper alternative chains chip away at other use cases, and it likely accounts for a meaningful share of the raw transaction volume behind the quarter's TPS record.

The timing lines up with a broader institutional push onto Ethereum's rails. JPMorgan's tokenized fund activity on the network has already crossed $900 million, and treasury-style accumulators have kept adding to their positions — BitMine alone has pushed its ETH treasury to within striking distance of 5% of total supply through a string of purchases this year. None of that shows up directly in a transactions-per-second figure, but it points to the same underlying trend: heavier, more concentrated usage from larger players layering onto Ethereum's base layer, rather than a wave of new retail wallets.

Whether that composition shift matters for ETH's price is a separate question from whether it matters for the network's health. A record-setting quarter for throughput and revenue is, on its own terms, evidence that Ethereum's base layer can absorb far more activity than it could even a year ago — the sort of capacity data point that tends to get cited in arguments about the chain's long-term settlement role. But investors watching for a broadening of Ethereum's user base, rather than just its transaction count, may need to wait for a quarter where both metrics move in the same direction again.

For now, the two figures Token Terminal put on the record — 203.9 million transactions and 25.9 TPS — are likely to become reference points in their own right, the kind of numbers that get cited in the next debate over whether Ethereum's base layer, rollup ecosystem, or a combination of both should be credited with the network's growing settlement capacity. Layer 2 networks built on top of Ethereum have absorbed a large share of retail-facing activity over the past two years, which makes a base-layer throughput record even more notable: it suggests demand for settling directly on L1 — the kind of activity institutions and large stablecoin issuers tend to prefer — is growing even as cheaper alternatives multiply around it.