Ethereum ($ETH) blockchain registered its highest quarterly transactions since inception during the first quarter (Q1) of 2026.
Over the past three months, the Ethereum network hit a record of 200.4 million, according to metrics from Artemis, a crypto analytics platform. As such, the chain’s quarterly transactions surged by around 43% from the previous quarter to reach an all-time high (ATH) in Q1.
Since Ethereum’s quarterly transactions bottomed around Q4 of 2023, the figure has gradually climbed to its peak earlier this year. Specifically, the number of settlements recorded on the Ethereum network peaked at 2.897 million transactions per day on February 7, 2026, before dropping to about 2.363 million payments on April 2, as per data from YCharts, a research and analytics platform.
Why did Ethereum quarterly transactions peak in Q1?
The primary reason why Ethereum’s transactions skyrocketed in Q1 was the sharp uptick in active addresses. Between January 1 and March 31, the number of active addresses on the Ether chain reached 12.6 million, a gain of about 1,704% from the prior quarter, based on analysis from DeFiLlama.
The active addresses on the Ethereum network surged after prior upgrades, which led to increased organic growth in layer two (L2) networks such as Base and Arbitrum (ARB), thereby boosting mainnet usage.
Meanwhile, the number of active users and transactions on the Ethereum ecosystem was bolstered by its rising stablecoin market cap. As of this reporting, the $ETH’s stablecoins market cap, per updates from DeFiLlama, was around $164.4 billion, catalyzed by regulatory clarity in the United States through the Genius Act. Higher stablecoin liquidity on-chain generally increases settlement and transfer demand, supporting overall transaction volumes.
