Several of the biggest blockchain networks handled more transactions in December even as the fees users paid fell, a sign that recent scaling upgrades are increasing capacity and easing competition for block space, according to data compiled by Nansen.
Data from Nansen showed that Bitcoin, Tron, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, and The Open Network (TON) recorded month-over-month increases in transactions, while fee revenue declined sharply across the same period.
Ethereum transactions increased by 16% despite a 57% decline in fee revenue. Polygon showed a similar divergence, with transaction counts jumping 82% while fees dropped 47%. Arbitrum and Avalanche also showed a very notable transactions-up, fees-down pattern.
Tron, Bitcoin, and TON recorded more modest transaction growth of 0.6%, 7.7% and 7.9%, respectively. However, these chains also saw declines in fee revenue, reinforcing the broader trend of easing blockspace pressure across networks.
The trends point to a structural shift in how blockchains handle demand. Scaling upgrades, rollups, and cheaper execution environments expanded capacity, without triggering congestion or bidding wars for inclusion.
According to Nansen’s artificial intelligence help section, its percentage-change figures are not strict month-over-month comparisons but reflect shifts relative to recent activity baselines.
As a result, sharp reversals or outflows can register as declines greater than 100%, representing a net negative flow in activity momentum rather than literal “negative transactions.”
Transactions rise as fee pressure fades across major networks
On Nov. 27, Ethereum raised its block gas limit to 60 million, allowing more transactions and contract calls to fit into each block, easing congestion.
The effect was reinforced in December with the Fusaka upgrade, which introduced PeerDAS to dramatically expand data availability and lower costs for rollups, reducing aggregate fee pressure even as activity increased.
Polygon showed a similar pattern after deploying its Madhugiri hard fork in early December. As Cointelegraph previously reported, the upgrade cut consensus time to one second and aimed to boost throughput by up to 33% while making gas-heavy operations more efficient and predictable.
The network positioned the upgrades around stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, which tend to generate more frequent but low-urgency transactions that lift volumes without pushing fees higher.
Meanwhile, Avalanche’s performance seems to be a result of a mix of ecosystem activities.
Nansen Research’s Avalanche Ecosystem Report showed that the network’s transaction growth can be attributed to stablecoin payments, institutional settlement, and consumer platforms like ticketing and gaming.
These use cases generate high throughput but little competition for blockspace, allowing transactions to rise while fees fall.
Meanwhile, Arbitrum’s pattern reflects the economics of rollup scaling. The network batches transactions off-chain and posts compressed data to Ethereum, allowing transaction volumes to grow without proportional increases in fees.
Its fee market design separates execution costs from Ethereum calldata costs, dampening fee volatility even under higher load.
Related: Memecoins go from Christmas cheer to cold reality, sinking 65% in a year
Not all networks shared the same divergence
While several major blockchains recorded higher transactions alongside falling fees, others saw activity and fee revenue decline in tandem, reflecting a quieter onchain environment over the last 30 days.
BNB Chain had a sharp pullback, with transactions down 79% and fees declining 14%. Base and HyperEVM recorded some of the steepest contractions in activity.
Base transactions fell 75%, while fee revenue dropped 63%. HyperEVM followed a similar pattern, with transactions down 119% and fees falling 46%, suggesting reduced short-term usage throughout December.
Meanwhile, Solana remained the busiest network with 1.7 billion transactions. However, even this result marked a 21% month-on-month decrease, according to Nansen. Similarly, fee revenue dropped 17% in the network.
These synchronized declines align with broader crypto market conditions. According to CoinGecko, the overall crypto market capitalization fluctuated between roughly $2.9 trillion and $3.1 trillion throughout December.
With prices, volatility, and capital rotation remaining stagnant, onchain activity across networks cooled in parallel.
Magazine: Ethereum’s Fusaka fork explained for dummies: What the hell is PeerDAS?
