Ethereum Mainnet usage was resilient in Q3 2026. Total transactions and average daily active addresses were almost flat compared with Q2, and average gas throughput was almost unchanged at 2.519 Mgas/s (+0.1% QoQ). Fee generation fell much further: users paid $35.1M in network fees (-33.6% QoQ), or 15,690 ETH (-36.8% QoQ).
Despite the quarter-on-quarter decline in fees, average daily median transaction costs and total user-paid fees rose sharply from July to September as transactions eased. This is consistent with stronger demand for scarce L1 blockspace. On the application side, Tether and Circle led Mainnet's ranking by transactions to mapped application contracts during 3 July–30 September 2026, ahead of Uniswap, Relay and Infinitism (ERC-4337). This 90-day window differs from the calendar quarter.
At the edge of the ecosystem, Robinhood Chain launched on 1 July. Built on Arbitrum Nitro for financial services and tokenized real-world assets, it processed nearly four times as many transactions as Mainnet in its first quarter. The report points to 121 active apps as of 30 September and sharply rising gas fees, totaling $51.0M in Q3, as evidence of economic activity following the launch.
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