Crypto glossary
TPS (transactions per second)
TPS, or transactions per second, measures how many transactions a blockchain processes each second and is the most quoted, and most abused, scalability figure.
Throughput depends on how much data fits in a block and how often blocks are produced. Bitcoin handles roughly 7 simple transactions per second and Ethereum's base layer roughly 15 to 30, while newer layer-1 chains and rollups advertise hundreds or thousands. Card networks are often used as the benchmark for comparison.
Projects quote TPS in launch announcements and marketing, but the numbers are often theoretical peaks measured in lab conditions with tiny transfers, or counts that include validator voting messages. Real sustained throughput on a public network is usually far lower, and analytics sites report observed figures that can differ a lot from claims.
A higher TPS figure says nothing about security, decentralization or finality time, and chains often reach speed by demanding powerful hardware from fewer validators. When comparing networks, it is more useful to look at actual daily usage, fees under load and how the chain behaved during busy periods.
Example
A chain claims 50,000 TPS, but its explorer shows 1,200 user transactions per second at its busiest hour last month, the number that actually matters for users.
