As of around May 2026, according to data from Token Terminal, the monthly number of transactions on the Ethereum L1 mainnet has exceeded 70 million, setting a historical high. At the same time, the median transaction fee on the mainnet during the same period was only about $0.00554, which is at a historical low, forming a clear "volume increase and price drop" structure. Odaily reports that the recent Glamsterdam upgrade has reduced Ethereum transaction fees by about 78%. In the context of ongoing performance and fee optimizations after The Merge, Ethereum has not lost users during the fee reduction process; instead, it has amplified the actual usage of the mainnet in a low-fee environment. Odaily also cites data stating that currently about 32.4% of ETH is staked, a record high for the staking ratio. Combined with high transaction volumes and low fees, this suggests that the PoS network is achieving a positive resonance in terms of security and activity. In the absence of more granular data on L1 and Layer 2 usage breakdowns, it still supports the judgment that "the mainnet's long-term competitiveness is further solidified."

Transaction Volume Exceeds 70 Million: High Load on the Mainnet

According to Token Terminal statistics, Ethereum L1 has for the first time surpassed 70 million transactions in a single month around May 2026, setting a historical high for the mainnet. This indicates that after transitioning to PoS and undergoing multiple rounds of performance upgrades, the direct usage demand for L1 remains strong. Users and applications have not completely migrated off the mainnet due to fee optimizations or multi-layer architectures; instead, they continue to rely on Ethereum as the settlement and execution layer amid high-frequency interactions.

More crucially, when this high load record was set, according to data from the same source, the median transaction fee on Ethereum L1 was only about $0.00554, in the historical low range, without re-establishing the congestion pattern of "increased volume inevitably causing Gas to be squeezed" as seen in earlier cycles. Under the cumulative throughput improvements following The Merge and subsequent upgrades, the mainnet has maintained stable operation in an environment characterized by high transaction volumes, high activity, and low fees, demonstrating that the current capacity of Ethereum L1 is significantly stronger than in previous cycles.

Glamsterdam Reduces Fees by 78%

Behind this round of "volume-price inversion," the direct triggering factor comes from the protocol layer's fee reduction. According to Odaily, the recently launched Glamsterdam upgrade has reduced Ethereum transaction fees by about 78%, regarded as a key step in a new round of fee optimization following The Merge, with a clear design focus on reducing the Gas costs paid by L1 end users. Correspondingly, data from Token Terminal shows that after the gradual impact of the upgrade, the median transaction fee on Ethereum L1 has dropped to about $0.00554, falling into the historical low range and thus releasing greater space for high-frequency interactions and small transactions.

Notably, Odaily points out that this round of cost reduction has not been accompanied by a loss of active users. The Ethereum network has absorbed the fee reduction impact brought by Glamsterdam while retaining its existing users, enabling the simultaneous occurrence of "record-high transaction volume and a phase-low median fee," forming a relatively rare combination of increased volume and decreased price on the mainnet.

How Layer 2 Will Respond After L1 Fee Reduction

After Glamsterdam has reduced the mainnet transaction costs by about 78%, the current median transaction fee on Ethereum L1 is only about $0.00554, which is significantly lower than most historical phases. For many businesses that were previously pushed to Layer 2 due to high Gas costs, the cost pressure of directly deploying on L1 has been noticeably alleviated. Some applications prioritizing settlement security and asset composability theoretically have the motivation to reassess the cost-effectiveness of "directly going to L1" versus "continuing to rely on Layer 2." However, it is important to note that the Layer 2 ecosystem itself has rapidly grown against the backdrop of historically high L1 fees, forming a complete set of expanded paths characterized by batch packaging and heterogeneous execution environments, and there is currently no on-chain evidence to suggest a direct replacement by L1 fee reductions in the short term.

From a research perspective, this round of Glamsterdam fee reductions and the interaction with the Layer 2 ecosystem are clearly listed as important points of observation for the future. However, currently available public information does not provide detailed usage breakdowns between the mainnet and each Layer 2, nor are there quantifiable comparative data under the same statistical criteria. As a result, any judgment regarding whether "low-fee L1 is eroding Layer 2 usage preferences" can only be considered a hypothesis that still needs validation. A more realistic direction for tracking will be to continue observing whether the mainnet gradually converges into a high-value transaction and secure settlement layer in a low-fee L1 environment, and whether complex business logic, frequent interactions, and multi-party batch processing evolve more intensively on various Layer 2s, thereby reshaping Ethereum's multi-layer structure in the sense of functional division rather than simple migration.

Staking Rate Exceeds 32%: Enhancing Security and Confidence

According to Odaily, currently about 32.4% of ETH is staked, setting a historical high for Ethereum. This means that over 30% of circulating ETH is locked in validator nodes for participation in PoS consensus block generation and network voting, with more holders choosing to assume a long-term on-chain role rather than maintaining full liquidity in the secondary market. This rise in ratio directly raises the threshold for "free chips" available to attack the network, mechanism-wise strengthening the security and censorship resistance of Ethereum's PoS, while also helping enhance the overall level of decentralization under a wider distribution of validators.

In terms of timing, this high staking rate coincides with Ethereum L1's monthly transaction numbers surpassing 70 million and median fees dropping to about $0.00554 within the same period: on one side, there is high transaction volume and the significant fee reduction brought by Glamsterdam, while on the other side, more ETH is being long-term locked in the consensus layer. High staking rates indicate a thicker "base" of network security, while high transaction volumes and low fees show that user demand and experience are still being maintained or even improved. The combination of these three factors releases a market signal that Ethereum as a high-security settlement layer and long-term value carrier is being further reinforced.

Can Low Fees and High Capacity Be Sustained?

From the data, currently, Ethereum L1, under a high load state with over 70 million transactions in a single month, can maintain a median fee of about $0.00554, combined with the approximately 78% reduction from Glamsterdam and the staking ratio of about 32.4%. This indicates that the current round of scalability and cost control has been partially realized. However, whether this "low-fee high-load" combination can continue does not solely depend on one upgrade but also on whether subsequent upgrade paths can be advanced at a steady pace, whether the growth of the mainnet and application layers is synchronized, and how limited on-chain resources are reallocated across different scenarios. Moving forward, more meaningful observation metrics will involve tracking the interlinked changes in transaction numbers and median fees over a longer time window and whether a new round of fee reductions or expansion upgrades will be launched after Glamsterdam. Until more granular split data for L1 and Layer 2 usage becomes available, any long-term evolution regarding the division of labor and value capture between the two layers should remain cautious, allowing for periodic judgments based solely on publicly available on-chain data.

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