Blockchains get busier and cheaper. What does it mean for developers?

Major blockchains are processing more activity while transactions get cheaper. For developers, the combination could open the door to a new generation of applications built around frequent, low-cost onchain interactions.

Blockchains are getting busier just as using them gets cheaper. For developers, that combination could matter more than token prices.

In Q2 2026, the Ethereum L1 processed 203.9 mln transactions, up 68% from 121.1 mln a year earlier, while the average transaction cost fell from $1.08 to $0.31. Solana handled 9.8 bln non-vote transactions, up from 8.9 bln, as average costs dropped from $0.03 to just $0.005. Avalanche went further still, processing roughly four times as many transactions as a year earlier, according to Bitwise’s Q3 2026 Staking Report.

This signal is hard to ignore. More activity shows that people are using blockchain infrastructure, while lower costs make entirely new types of high-volume applications practical to build.

“This growth in onchain activity is a real indicator that blockchain technology is relevant and valuable despite market conditions,” says Tanner Moore, Developer Relations Engineer at 1inch. “Builders working on these networks today will be well-positioned when the markets recover.”

More activity, lower costs

Historically, rising blockchain usage often came with a painful trade-off: congestion.

More transactions meant more competition for limited blockspace, pushing fees higher. Applications that required frequent transactions could quickly become too expensive to use.

Blockchain infrastructure has been moving in the opposite direction. Networks have been expanding capacity so that more activity does not necessarily mean higher costs.

Ethereum is a good example. Bitwise found that its mainnet throughput rose from about 15 transactions per second in Q2 2025 to 26 a year later after increases to the block gas limit. Ethereum’s broader scaling roadmap has also pushed activity toward rollups and made data availability cheaper. Ethereum.org estimates that current rollups can already be around 5-20 times cheaper than Ethereum Layer 1, with further scaling improvements planned.

Bitwise describes lower network revenue alongside higher activity as one of the main themes of the quarter. The report argues that the decline in fees largely reflects protocol design: networks are deliberately making blockspace cheaper and more abundant rather than simply seeing demand disappear.

That distinction matters for developers. Lower fees combined with growing activity mean blockchains can support applications that would have struggled economically only a few years ago.

Builders can look beyond token prices

Crypto development has always moved alongside market cycles. Rising prices attract capital and attention. Falling prices can create the impression that the underlying technology is also losing relevance.

Network activity tells a different story. For Tanner, growing usage during a weaker market is a particularly useful signal for builders. People continue to transact even when speculation around token prices is less favorable.

The opportunity for developers is therefore not necessarily to wait for the next market cycle. It is to build while the infrastructure is becoming capable of supporting more demanding products.

“If you look back at almost all of the breakout applications on Ethereum, you will find the founders were working hard on their ideas during bear markets and they were focused on making applications that solved user needs. Investor sentiment is still important, but being positioned correctly before the next market upswing is where the hockey stick growth usually happens,” Tanner says.

The economics of an application can change significantly when the cost of each interaction falls. Features that once needed to minimize onchain transactions can become viable with much higher transaction frequency.

High-volume apps become more viable

The clearest example is perpetual futures.

Perps require a very different kind of blockchain infrastructure from an application where a user makes one transaction occasionally. Trading applications can involve frequent orders, position changes, liquidations and other interactions. Low transaction costs and high throughput are therefore central to making the experience practical.

Perp DEX growth shows what becomes possible as infrastructure improves. CoinGecko found that decentralized perpetual exchange volume grew 346% in 2025 to $6.7 trn. In the first four months of 2026, the top 12 perp DEXs averaged $611.57 bln in monthly trading volume, up from an average of $531.65 bln in 2025.

“Apps that rely on very high transaction volume are cheaper and more viable than ever,” Tanner says. “The popularity of perps is an obvious example.”

The same principle can extend beyond trading. Games, payments, social applications, automated agents and other products can all require large numbers of small onchain actions. When every action is expensive, developers have to design around the blockchain’s limitations. When blockspace becomes abundant and inexpensive, they have more room to design around what users actually need.

A lower cost per transaction therefore does more than make existing applications cheaper. It expands the range of applications developers can realistically build.

Cheaper blockspace changes what you can build

Developers once had to assume that every onchain interaction was scarce and potentially expensive. That assumption is becoming less reliable.

Ethereum’s recent upgrades have increased capacity and reduced costs, while Solana continues to operate around a fee model designed for high-throughput applications. Other networks are pursuing similar goals.

The change does not mean scalability problems are solved. Networks still have different trade-offs, congestion can return during demand spikes and applications still need to optimize execution carefully. Financial applications also remain subject to applicable regulatory requirements, whatever the infrastructure costs.

But the direction matters. More activity alongside cheaper transactions suggests that blockchain infrastructure is moving toward a point where developers can build products around frequent onchain interactions rather than treating every transaction as an expensive event.

For Tanner, that makes the current environment an opportunity.

The applications that benefit most from cheaper blockspace may not simply be cheaper versions of today’s DeFi products. They could be products that previously did not make economic sense to build onchain at all.

And the developers experimenting with those models now may be the ones best positioned when the next wave of users arrives.

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Disclaimer: This content is for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any particular digital asset or to employ any specific investment strategy.