According to data compiled by Nancy, several of the largest blockchain networks handled more transactions in December despite the drop in user fees.
Ninsen data shows that Bitcoin, Tron, Ethereum, Arbitrator, Polygon, Avalanche and OpenNetwork (TON) recorded month-over-month increases in transactions, while fee income declined sharply over the same period.
Ethereum transactions grew 16% despite a 57% drop in fee revenue. Polygon showed similar variation, with transaction counts jumping 82 percent while fees fell 47 percent. Arbitrage and Avalanche also showed a very noticeable transactional, face-down pattern.
Tron, Bitcoin, and Tin recorded modest transaction growth of 0.6%, 7.7%, and 7.9%, respectively. However, these chains also saw a drop in fee revenue, reinforcing a broader trend of reducing block space pressure across networks.
The trends point to a structural shift in how blockchains handle demand. Scaling upgrades, roll-ups and cheap execution environments expand capacity without triggering congestion or bidding wars for inclusion.
According to Nansen’s artificial intelligence support section, its percentage change data is not a month-over-month comparison but rather reflects a change against a baseline of recent activity.
As a result, sharp reversal pulses or outflows can be registered as declines greater than 100% occur, representing a net negative flow in activity momentum rather than a literal “negative transaction”.
Larger networks tend to increase transactions as fee pressures are removed
On November 27, Ethereum increased its blockgas limit to 60 million, allowing more transactions and contract calls to fit into each block, easing congestion.
This effect was reinforced in December with the Fusaka upgrade, which introduced Pardas to dramatically increase data availability and lower costs for roll-ups, reducing pressure on overall fees despite increased activity.
Polygon showed a similar pattern after deploying the Madhugri hard fork in early December. As Quintalgraph previously reported, the upgrade reduced consensus time by one second and is intended to increase input by 33 percent while making gas-heavy operations more efficient and predictable.
The network positioned the upgrade around stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, which create more frequent but less stable transactions that lift volume without pushing up fees.
Meanwhile, avalanche performance appears to be the result of a mix of ecosystem activities.
Ninsen Research’s Avalanche ecosystem report shows that the increase in network transactions can be attributed to stablecoin payments, institutional settlement and consumer platforms such as ticketing and gaming.
These use cases create high throughput but little competition for block space, increasing transactions while decreasing fees.
Meanwhile, the arbitrage model reflects the economics of roll-up scaling. The network ties transactions off-chain and compresses data for Ethereum, increasing transaction volume without a proportional increase in fees.
Its fee market design separates execution costs from Ethereum call data costs, reducing fee fluctuations even under heavy load.
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Not all networks shared the same twist
While several major blockchains recorded falling fees as well as higher transactions, others saw a decline in activity and fee income, reflecting a calmer environment over the past 30 days.
BNB China had a faster pullback, with transactions down 79% and fees down 14%.
Base and HyperEVM recorded some of the sharpest contractions in activity. Base transactions fell 75%, while fee income fell 63%. Hyperium followed a similar pattern, with transactions down 119% and fees down 46%, suggesting a decline in short-term usage throughout December.
Solana remained the busiest network with 1.7 billion transactions. Even that resulted in a 21 percent month-over-month decline, according to Nansen. Similarly, fee income declined by 17%.
This consistent decline aligns with broader crypto market conditions. Total crypto market capitalization fluctuated between 92.9 trillion and 13.1 trillion in December, according to Kongiko.
Onchin activity in the networks cooled in parallel, with prices, volatility and capital circulation remaining the same.
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