Cardano's Reward Model Struggles with Fee Revenue Gap

Cardano's staking rewards remain heavily dependent on reserve emissions rather than transaction fees. In recent epochs, the network generated 3.3 million ADA in transaction fees against 493.7 million ADA in staking rewards.

The fee revenue gap with rewards has grown as usage thinned out, with average daily transactions falling 72.46% from 90,294 in 2022 to 24,869 between January and August 2026.

Cardano's reward model faces a pressing structural question heading into its next scaling upgrade.