Ethereum's network is showing signs of trouble. Transaction numbers have hit their lowest point in five months. This downturn comes amid a broader cryptocurrency market slump, with investor interest and trading activity taking a hit.

The mainnet is seeing less action. TOBTC, a trading platform, broke the news on X. The drop raises eyebrows about Ethereum's short-term prospects. Are investors in panic? Have they switched to Solana and other competitors?

Anyways, this falling is a stark contrast to January's peak. Then, the network processed a whopping 36.02 million monthly transactions. Now, users seem to be looking elsewhere.

TOBTC reports a significant slowdown. The seven-day moving average has settled at 1.12 million daily transactions. It's a level not seen since February.

The transaction count isn't the only issue. Active wallet addresses have also taken a nosedive, dropping to about 400,000.

But there's a silver lining. Ethereum layer 2 solutions are picking up the slack. Base network, backed by Coinbase, is leading the charge. It's clocking an impressive 3.83 million transactions in a single day.

This surge highlights a shift. Users are flocking to layer 2 solutions over the Ethereum mainnet. Why? They're cheaper and faster, while still maintaining Ethereum's robust security features.

The web3 ecosystem faces challenges. Interoperability across different networks has been a persistent headache.

But Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, sees light at the end of the tunnel. As he usually does.

Buterin's optimistic about layer 2 networks. He reckons they're on the cusp of solving these long-standing issues. He recently predicted that cross-L2 interoperability problems will soon be a thing of the past, once again proving that he is a force of nature rather than just an ordinary blockchain geek (like we didn't know that already).