The Ethereum scaling ecosystem has hit a remarkable new milestone, achieving an unprecedented combined transactions per second (TPS) rate. This surge is largely attributed to the rapid growth of Xai, a new Ethereum layer-3 scaling solution tailored for gaming applications.

On June 16, data from L2BEAT revealed that Ethereum’s scaling networks, encompassing both layer-2 and layer-3 blockchains, reached a combined TPS of 246.18. This translates to an estimated 21.2 million transactions in a single day.

Xai, a relatively unknown player until recently, accounted for over 41% of these transactions. This scaling solution, developed by Offchain Labs—the team behind Arbitrum One—has seen its TPS soar from a modest 1 per day before June 10 to an impressive 101.72 TPS on June 16.

Following Xai, the top performers in the Ethereum scaling ecosystem were Base and Arbitrum, which recorded nearly 33 and 21 TPS, respectively, on the same day. Proof of Play Apex, another game-centric layer-3 scaler also launched by Offchain Labs, secured the fourth position in this ranking.

Despite the high transaction volumes, the total value locked (TVL) in Xai and Proof of Play Apex remains relatively low, with $1.38 million and $695,000, respectively. In contrast, the leading Ethereum scaling solutions by TVL, Arbitrum One and Base, hold a substantial $18 billion and $7.6 billion, respectively.

Industry experts have mixed views on the significance of TPS as a performance metric for blockchains. Steven Goldfeder, a founder at Offchain Labs, likened TPS to “counting the number of bills in your wallet but ignoring that some are singles, some are twenties, and some are hundreds,” in an interview with Cointelegraph Magazine. Nonetheless, TPS continues to be the most prevalent metric due to the lack of a universally accepted alternative, Goldfeder noted.

As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to innovate and scale, the rise of solutions like Xai underscores the dynamic nature of blockchain technology and its expanding applications in sectors such as gaming.