The Ethereum ecosystem has reached a new record high in combined transactions per second (TPS), largely due to a sudden surge in TPS on an obscure Ethereum layer 3 platform.
Data from L2BEAT reveals that on June 16, the Ethereum scaling networks, encompassing layer-2 and layer-3 blockchains, achieved a total of 246.18 TPS, resulting in an estimated 21.2 million transactions throughout the day.
A significant portion of these transactions, over 41%, occurred on Xai, a novel Ethereum layer 3 scaling solution tailored for gaming applications. Powered by Offchain Labs, the creator of the Arbitrum One blockchain, Xai’s TPS numbers had been averaging around 1 per day before June 10, but have been steadily increasing since then, peaking at 101.72 TPS on June 16.
Following Xai, Base and Arbitrum secured the second and third spots with approximately 33 and 21 TPS respectively on June 16. Proof of Play Apex, another gaming-focused Ethereum layer 3 scaling platform from Offchain Labs, came in fourth.
Despite their high TPS numbers, the total value locked (TVL) in Xai and Proof of Play Apex remains relatively modest at $1.38 million and $695,000 respectively. In comparison, Arbitrum One and Base, two of the largest Ethereum scaling solutions by TVL, currently hold $18 billion and $7.6 billion.
Xai and Proof of Play Apex, with the 45th and 50th largest TVLs in the Ethereum ecosystem, are considered high-speed scaling solutions. Some experts argue that TPS may not be the most accurate measure of blockchain performance, likening it to counting the bills in your wallet without considering their denominations.
Despite this, TPS remains a widely used metric due to the lack of a better alternative. The debate over whether measuring blockchain transactions per second is relevant in 2024 continues to spark discussions within the industry.