Avalanche Sees Transaction Surge as Gas Fees Collapse After Etna and Octane Upgrades

Avalanche’s C-Chain is witnessing an all-time high in transaction volume, coinciding with a dramatic reduction in gas fees. Median transaction costs have dropped from around $0.12 to under $0.001 following the implementation of two key network upgrades: Etna and Octane.

Etna Cuts Base Fees, Unlocks Flexibility

The Etna upgrade, deployed in late 2024, introduced a major overhaul of Avalanche’s fee structure. It slashed the minimum base fee on the C-Chain from 25 to 1 nano-AVAX—a reduction of approximately 96%. This significantly lowered the cost of basic transactions and smart contract interactions.

In addition to fee reductions, Etna introduced dynamic gas fee adjustments on the P-Chain, giving validators the ability to set fees based on network conditions rather than relying on hardcoded values. The result is a more adaptive and efficient fee market across the network.

Octane Optimizes Fee Dynamics for C-Chain

Building on Etna’s groundwork, the Octane upgrade brought further optimization by making C-Chain gas fee calculations fully dynamic. Rather than relying on fixed parameters, the network now adjusts base fees in real time, targeting specific gas usage levels to maintain stability.

Octane also gives validators greater control over gas target thresholds, allowing for more scalable and cost-efficient network performance. Since its launch, key metrics such as swap fees, average transaction fees, and gas per token transfer have dropped significantly.

Lower Costs, Higher Activity

These upgrades have collectively positioned Avalanche as one of the most cost-effective and scalable Layer-1 networks. Lower fees have contributed to a surge in on-chain activity, with developers, DeFi platforms, and dApps taking advantage of the reduced cost to operate at higher throughput.

The enhancements are part of Avalanche’s broader push to increase transaction speed, improve accessibility, and prepare for widespread enterprise and institutional adoption.

With Etna and Octane now live, Avalanche is continuing work on its Avalanche9000 roadmap. Future developments aim to further boost scalability, improve developer tooling, and support permissionless validation. If momentum continues, Avalanche is expected to maintain its position as one of the most efficient smart contract platforms in the industry.