Higher Activity, Lower Fees: ’s What December’s Onchain Data Shows
Onchain data shows activity holding up on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum and Avalanche even as fee revenue declines across the crypto sector.
Several of the biggest blockchain networks handled more transactions in December even as user fees 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.”
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.
Source: CoinTelegraph
