BlockBeats News, April 17th. According to CoinDesk, the Ethereum network processed a total of 200.4 million transactions in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing 200 million transactions in a single quarter for the first time. This marked a significant 43% increase from the fourth quarter of 2025, which saw 145 million transactions, displaying a clear U-shaped recovery curve. The quarterly transaction volume hit a low of around 90 million transactions in 2023, traded sideways between 100 million and 120 million transactions throughout 2024, and began to increase steadily by quarters only around the middle of 2025. However, there has been a notable deviation between the price of Ethereum's native token, ETH, and on-chain activity—ETH is currently trading at around $2,328, plummeting over 50% from its all-time high near $5,000 in August 2025.

The primary drivers of the transaction volume growth come from two main sources: first, Layer 2 networks such as Optimism and Arbitrum settle and bridge data to the Ethereum base layer after processing user transactions; second, the total supply of stablecoins on Ethereum has reached a record high of $180 billion, accounting for approximately 60% of the global stablecoin market.

Some analysts have issued a risk warning regarding this trend: with the significant reduction in Layer 2 data costs after the Dencun upgrade, the revenue per transaction on the Ethereum base layer decreases, and the growth in transaction volume may not directly translate into a synchronous increase in ETH burning or holder value. Furthermore, the proportion of bot activity in stablecoin on-chain transactions continues to rise, posing a question mark on the quality of this growth cycle.