Cardano transaction fees cover only 0.7% of staking rewards as activity declines

Cardano collected 3.3 million ADA in transaction fees against 493.7 million ADA in staking rewards over 73 epochs ending September 1, 2026, according to Bitquery. Fees accounted for approximately 0.668% of total rewards, highlighting a significant economic gap. Daily transaction volume has dropped by over 72% since 2022, while automated bot activity has increased as a share of the total. Future network upgrades aim to improve throughput, but long-term sustainability remains dependent on increased fee revenue from users and applications.