Espresso mainnet can now handle up to 1 million transactions per second, with finality staying under a second even at peak load.
New benchmarks measured 181 MB/s data throughput across 100 nodes with latency emulating a global network. Assuming an average stablecoin transfer size of 180 bytes that equals >1M TPS.
For context, 181 MB/s compares favorably to the max throughput of other major chains: Solana (29.68 MB/s), Tempo (3.74 MB/s), BNB Chain (1.18 MB/s), Arc (0.48 MB/s), Avalanche (0.43 MB/s), and Ethereum (0.35 MB/s).
But throughput only matters if speed holds up. Many chains trade one for the other. Not Espresso:
- 337 ms average finality under typical load
- 778 ms average finality under peak load (181 MB/s)
How’d we do it? Espresso was designed from first principles to provide what the institutional and enterprise apps of the future will need from a base layer: fast, deterministic finality on tx ordering and DA, and the throughput to handle peak demand and the larger txs post-quantum signatures and privacy proofs will require.
Execution is not on the list, so Espresso has no VM. This allows its 100 globally distributed validators to focus solely on reaching consensus on tx ordering and DA as fast as possible.
No VM also means integrated chains like ApeChain, and soon Celo and MegaETH, can choose their VM, fee model, sequencer, privacy and compliance rules, while inheriting Espresso’s real-time finality and high throughput.
Why it matters: Stablecoins are expanding into payments, treasury, and commerce, while AI agents increasingly initiate payments. Both face the same constraint: assets sit across many chains, and moving value can still take minutes or require trusted intermediaries. Machine-speed software can’t wait for slow finality.
Subsecond deterministic finality lets any chain, exchange, agent, or system trust an Espresso-integrated chain’s state immediately, enabling crosschain transfers that clear nearly as fast as the payments themselves. $ESP
New benchmarks measured 181 MB/s data throughput across 100 nodes with latency emulating a global network. Assuming an average stablecoin transfer size of 180 bytes that equals >1M TPS.
For context, 181 MB/s compares favorably to the max throughput of other major chains: Solana (29.68 MB/s), Tempo (3.74 MB/s), BNB Chain (1.18 MB/s), Arc (0.48 MB/s), Avalanche (0.43 MB/s), and Ethereum (0.35 MB/s).
But throughput only matters if speed holds up. Many chains trade one for the other. Not Espresso:
- 337 ms average finality under typical load
- 778 ms average finality under peak load (181 MB/s)
How’d we do it? Espresso was designed from first principles to provide what the institutional and enterprise apps of the future will need from a base layer: fast, deterministic finality on tx ordering and DA, and the throughput to handle peak demand and the larger txs post-quantum signatures and privacy proofs will require.
Execution is not on the list, so Espresso has no VM. This allows its 100 globally distributed validators to focus solely on reaching consensus on tx ordering and DA as fast as possible.
No VM also means integrated chains like ApeChain, and soon Celo and MegaETH, can choose their VM, fee model, sequencer, privacy and compliance rules, while inheriting Espresso’s real-time finality and high throughput.
Why it matters: Stablecoins are expanding into payments, treasury, and commerce, while AI agents increasingly initiate payments. Both face the same constraint: assets sit across many chains, and moving value can still take minutes or require trusted intermediaries. Machine-speed software can’t wait for slow finality.
Subsecond deterministic finality lets any chain, exchange, agent, or system trust an Espresso-integrated chain’s state immediately, enabling crosschain transfers that clear nearly as fast as the payments themselves. $ESP