Ethereum News: Ethereum Nears $5K as Transaction Count Hits Highs, But Market Share Faces Pressure

Ethereum’s price climbed to $4,724 on Wednesday, edging closer to the $5,000 milestone as on-chain activity surged. Daily average transactions on the Ethereum network reached over 1.7 million, near record levels, according to Nansen data. However, Ethereum’s dominance is being challenged by layer-2 scaling solutions and next-gen layer-1 competitors, eroding protocol revenues and user share.Transaction Growth Overshadowed by L2 and L1 RivalsEthereum Layer-2 Surge: Arbitrum processed 3.4M transactions, and Base recorded 8.6M in the same period — both surpassing Ethereum’s mainnet.External Competition: Aptos, a high-throughput layer-1 blockchain, hosted 3.8M transactions on Monday, underscoring growing cross-chain competition.Stagnant User Base: Active addresses on Ethereum remain within the 400K–600K range since 2018, with occasional spikes above 1M.Revenue Decline After Dencun UpgradeThe March 2024 Dencun upgrade slashed L2 transaction fees, incentivizing users to migrate activity away from Ethereum mainnet. While this reduced congestion, it also lowered network revenue as gas fees fell from highs of $50+ per transaction during peak periods.Impact: Cheaper L2 costs benefited users but hurt Ethereum’s base-layer fee market.Competitors: Solana, Sui, and other L1s are drawing activity with low fees and high throughput.Strategic Crossroads for EthereumIndustry leaders warn that chasing raw performance metrics could be risky. Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron cautioned against Ethereum trying to outpace next-gen L1s purely on speed, emphasizing the need for a differentiated scaling and execution roadmap, according to Cointelegraph. Market OutlookPrice Target: Traders eye the $5K resistance zone, with strong ETF inflows adding bullish momentum.Risks: Continued L2 migration and cross-chain competition could further erode mainnet revenues.Opportunities: Ethereum’s strong developer ecosystem and L2 dominance may offset base-layer volume losses in the long term.