Pectra doubled blob sidecars from 3 to 6 to ease L2 settlement, but fragmentation and state growth still keep scalability and node economics in focus.
Ethereum’s base layer just posted its busiest day of 2025, pairing record throughput with fees that would have been unthinkable in prior congestion cycles. In a social post, Etherscan said Ethereum processed 1,913,481 Layer 1 transactions in a single day and the average transaction fee was $0.16. That combination implies the network can absorb heavy demand without pricing out everyday users, a practical signal that 2025’s scaling work is materially reshaping mainnet economics. For wallets and applications, cheaper execution means routine transfers, contract calls, and settlement flows can run with less friction and fewer retries.
The most immediate driver was Fusaka, activated earlier this month, which directly expanded Ethereum’s Layer 1 capacity. The upgrade increased block size by roughly 33%, allowing significantly more transactions to fit into every block. It was the catalyst for the spike. It also introduced PeerDAS, enabling nodes to verify data “blobs” by sampling tiny portions instead of downloading everything, easing a long-running throughput bottleneck. Blobs, introduced in Dencun and expanded in Fusaka, function like sidecars attached to main blocks, carrying data cheaply without competing with standard transactions. Fusaka turned capacity gains into real user-facing throughput.
Pectra, rolled out in May, prepared the network for higher utilization by optimizing how Layer 2 systems interact with Ethereum’s main chain. The upgrade doubled the number of blob sidecars per block from 3 to 6, increasing the supply of space for L2 data submission. With more room available, the cost for networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base to settle on Ethereum fell, helping keep the base layer uncongested even as activity climbed. That coordination between L2s and L1 is now showing up in metrics. Pectra effectively lowered settlement friction by expanding blob bandwidth.
Even with these gains, Ethereum’s scaling roadmap remains unfinished. The ecosystem is still fragmented, and users can struggle to move funds across L2 environments without relying on complicated bridges. Another pressure point is state growth: the database of accounts, balances, and smart contracts keeps expanding and could reach terabytes or even petabytes, a size that would make it difficult for normal users to run a node with consumer hardware. Throughput can rise, but decentralization must stay practical. That trade-off will shape priorities. Fragmentation and state bloat are the constraints that still define Ethereum’s next phase.
