Stellar (XLM) lowered its average transaction fee to the lowest level in 7 days on the day it saw the heaviest network usage.

On Oct. 13, blockchain media outlet U.Today reported that Stellar posted an average transaction fee of $0.00012 on Oct. 11.

The figure came as network activity hit a weekly peak that day. By on-chain analytics firm ChainSpect data, Stellar processed about 12 million transactions on Oct. 11, and the average throughput stood at 139.15 transactions per second. Fees fell despite the week’s highest transaction volume.

The market is focusing on the combination of higher volume and lower costs. Stellar maintained high activity throughout the day without a typical Sunday slowdown. The network also did not sharply raise costs even during congested periods.

Behind the change is the recently applied Stellar Protocol 28 “Adapter” upgrade. Its core proposal, CAP-83, is designed to let validators start voting before receiving the full transaction set. Late-arriving or invalid transaction sets can be explicitly excluded from consensus without waiting.

This allows the consensus process to continue even if transaction data propagation is delayed. The explanation is that it improves throughput while laying the foundation to keep operating costs low even on large networks.

Other indicators in the Stellar ecosystem are also expanding. The value of real-world assets on Stellar has risen 11-fold since January 2025, increasing to $3.54 billion from $300 million. This growth was driven by Franklin Templeton’s BENJI and WisdomTree products. Stellar has also logged more than $2.7 billion in tokenised fund growth so far in 2026.

With that trend, Stellar added another case showing low fees alongside higher throughput. Attention is focused on whether Stellar’s tokenised assets and payments network expansion will continue, as the latest upgrade showed what effect it can have under real network load.

⚡ @StellarOrg cleared 12.0M transactions on October 11. That averages 139.15 TPS, its busiest day this week. Stellar skipped the Sunday slowdown entirely. https://t.co/3ldGs3Xm7Z https://t.co/XZvqIirJdA