No enterprise blockchain wins on every count: the right one depends on the use case. Based on data as of October 31, 2026, Ethereum and its layer 2s, along with Avalanche, come first for tokenizing securities in the EU; Base, Solana and Avalanche for stablecoin payments; Hyperledger Fabric or Besu for a private consortium; and Spain's blockchain services infrastructure (ISBE) for the Spanish public sector. We compare ten networks on tooling, 3-year cost, RWA tokenization, interoperability and managed services.
It is written for the people who pick the network for a real project: finance, product, engineering or compliance. Every figure comes with its source and date, and the ranking uses tiers whenever the data does not separate one network from another. One disclosure before you read on: Unknown Gravity builds on several of these networks and is a member of Alastria, the association that operates ISBE.
The five criteria and why they matter
- Tooling and SDKs. They decide which skills you need, how many auditors know the code and how much you can reuse. Ethereum, its layer 2s, Polygon, Avalanche's C-Chain, Besu and ISBE share the EVM and Solidity; Solana requires Rust; Canton uses Daml; and Fabric supports general-purpose languages.
- 3-year cost. One day's fee tells you little. Volume, subscriptions or managed services, nodes and a possible exit all count, and over three years operations and migration outweigh the price of a single transaction.
- RWA tokenization. The token itself has to control who can hold and transfer it (for example, only investors who have passed KYC), and the network needs real, verifiable issuances. On EVM networks the ERC-3643 standard handles this; on Solana, Token-2022 does.
- Interoperability. Moving value or data to other networks without relying on wrapped tokens: Circle's CCTP for USDC, native layer 2 bridges, Polygon's Agglayer, Avalanche's ICM or ISBE's planned link to EBSI.
- Managed services. Who runs the nodes, under what service agreement, and what happens if the provider shuts down. This is not hypothetical: Amazon Managed Blockchain stopped accepting new customers on October 29, 2026.
We do not score networks on advertised transactions per second or on token price: neither is measured comparably across networks, and neither tells you whether a network fits your use case.
The 10 platforms compared
The list covers the networks banks, fintechs and issuers ask about when they compare providers: Ethereum and three families of layer 2 networks (Arbitrum, Base and the OP Stack), Polygon, Avalanche, Solana, Hyperledger private networks, Canton and ISBE. BNB Chain, Bitcoin and Tempo are left out of the table for the reasons given further down. If you are only weighing Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base, see our Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base comparison.
Table 1. Access, tooling and cost
| Platform | Network type | Tooling and SDKs | Cost (source and date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | Public (layer 1) | Solidity, Hardhat, Foundry; ERC-3643 is a final standard for securities | ≈$0.05 median per transaction (growthepie, Oct 1–30, 2026) |
| Arbitrum (Arbitrum One and dedicated chains) | Public layer 2; dedicated chain with permissioned validators | Ethereum libraries and tooling; Nitro codebase and custom gas token for a dedicated chain | ≈$0.004 on Arbitrum One (growthepie, Oct 1–30, 2026) |
| Base | Public layer 2 built by Coinbase | Solidity and EVM tooling; still compatible with the OP Stack specification after announcing its own stack (Feb 18, 2026) | ≈$0.002 (growthepie, Oct 1–30, 2026) |
| OP Stack (OP Mainnet and dedicated chains) | Public layer 2 or dedicated chain | Solidity and EVM tooling; OP Stack to launch a dedicated chain | ≈$0.00003 on OP Mainnet (growthepie, Oct 1–30, 2026) |
| Polygon (PoS and CDK) | Public (PoS) or private (CDK) | EVM; CDK with the OP Stack or Besu | ≈$0.009 on Polygon PoS (growthepie, Oct 1–30, 2026); deterministic finality in 2–5 s |
| Avalanche (C-Chain and dedicated L1s) | Public (C-Chain) or dedicated L1, which can be private | EVM on the C-Chain; ICM messaging between L1s | C-Chain: median gas price of 2.8–3.6 nAVAX (Snowscan, Oct 31, 2026), under $0.001 for a simple transfer. Dedicated L1: ≈1.33 AVAX per validator per month, the ACP-77 minimum and the rate in force on Oct 31, 2026 (it rises if active L1 validators exceed 10,000) |
| Solana | Public, non-EVM | Rust and Anchor; Token-2022 (Token Extensions) for issuer controls | 5,000 lamports per signature, ≈$0.0005 with SOL at $95.68 (CoinGecko, Oct 31, 2026), plus an optional priority fee |
| Hyperledger Fabric or Besu (your own private network) | Permissioned | Fabric: contracts in Go, Java or Node.js. Besu: Java Ethereum client, Apache 2.0 license, QBFT consensus | No public fee market: you pay for servers and operations (Fabric needs no native cryptocurrency) |
| Canton | Public layer 1 with sub-transaction privacy | Daml; Daml SDK, Wallet SDK and dApp SDK; CIP-0056 token standard | Traffic above a free tier, priced in USD per MB and paid by burning Canton Coin; the documentation's MainNet example uses $60 per MB |
| ISBE | Public permissioned (Besu, QBFT) | Solidity, Hardhat or Foundry, OpenZeppelin, the @red-isbe/isbe-contracts library and an ERC3643 template | No gas. Subscription of €500, €2,000 or €5,000 per month (50,000, 300,000 or 1,000,000 tx) plus €0.020 per extra tx (ADM1010 policy v1.0, Dec 16, 2025) |
The Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet and Polygon PoS figures come from the same source (growthepie): each is the average of the daily median cost per transaction from October 1 to 30, 2026, so they are comparable with each other. The Solana, Avalanche, Canton and ISBE figures measure something else (base fee, gas price, traffic fee or subscription) and only show the order of magnitude.
On Solana, Alpenglow, the new consensus protocol, has been live since October 21, 2026 (epoch 1064). It targets finality of roughly 150 milliseconds, which is a target rather than a measurement; it leaves execution and fees unchanged, but indexers and monitoring need to be reviewed. Its second phase (Rotor) has no date yet.
Table 2. Tokenization, interoperability and managed services
| Platform | RWA tokenization (verifiable example) | Interoperability | Managed services |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | BlackRock launched its BUIDL fund on Ethereum on March 20, 2024; Franklin Templeton's FOBXX fund on request | Native bridges to its layer 2s; native USDC and EURC; CCTP | Amazon Managed Blockchain (no new customers since Oct 29, 2026); nodes on Google Cloud Blockchain Node Engine |
| Arbitrum | Robinhood launched stock tokens for EU customers, initially issued on Arbitrum (June 30, 2025); BUIDL and FOBXX | Settles on Ethereum; native USDC; CCTP | Dedicated chain through rollup-as-a-service providers (Caldera, Conduit, Gelato, Alchemy, QuickNode and others) |
| Base | FOBXX on request | Native USDC and EURC; CCTP | Shared network: a dedicated chain does not apply |
| OP Stack | BUIDL, with a share class on OP Mainnet since Nov 13, 2024 | Documented interop between OP chains; native USDC on OP Mainnet; CCTP | OP Enterprise: fully managed or self-managed with support; 6–8 weeks to production, according to OP Labs |
| Polygon | BUIDL and FOBXX | Agglayer on every CDK chain; native USDC on PoS; CCTP | CDK: Polygon designs and launches the chain with the client; it is not self-serve |
| Avalanche | Securitize announced (Nov 26, 2025) that it would launch its European trading and settlement system under the EU DLT Pilot Regime on Avalanche; also BUIDL, FOBXX and the SECZ share | ICM between L1s; native USDC and EURC; CCTP | AvaCloud: a dedicated L1 run by AvaCloud, or one you deploy in your own cloud or on premises with its support |
| Solana | BUIDL (March 25, 2025), State Street and Galaxy's SWEEP fund (May 5, 2026) and Galaxy commercial paper arranged by J.P. Morgan (Dec 11, 2025) | Native USDC and EURC; CCTP; BUIDL uses Wormhole | Solana Permissioned Environments (SPEs), not connected to mainnet |
| Fabric or Besu | Tirios (Reg A offering filed with the SEC, on Fabric): the token is a “digital courtesy copy” and the transfer agent's records take precedence | Fabric isolates data with channels and private data; reaching public networks requires a bridge | Amazon Managed Blockchain for Fabric until Sep 30, 2027; Kaleido (permissioned chains with Besu); Polygon's CDK Besu |
| Canton | DTCC and Digital Asset announced (Dec 17, 2025) the tokenization of DTC-custodied US Treasuries; on Oct 28, 2026, DTCC launched its tokenization service, integrated with Canton and its private Besu network | Global Synchronizer across Canton applications | Your own validator; the documentation allows a third-party provider to buy traffic for you; Kaleido lists Canton |
| ISBE | Two projects under way, according to ISBE: the bond Token City is working on and Bit2Me STX's exchange, still being deployed; both with an ERIR | EBSI connection still in development | ISBE's BaaS; ISBE deploys contracts, and custom ones go through a 2–12 week approval |
What it costs over 3 years: a worked example
Assumption: 100,000 transactions a month for 36 months, or 3.6 million in total. We multiply by the Table 1 figure and, for networks with a subscription or validator fee, apply that fee instead. This is network cost only, at prices as of October 31, 2026.
| Network | Calculation | Network cost over 3 years |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | 3.6M × $0.053 | ≈$190,000 |
| Polygon PoS | 3.6M × $0.0095 | ≈$34,000 |
| Arbitrum One | 3.6M × $0.0037 | ≈$13,500 |
| Base | 3.6M × $0.0017 | ≈$6,100 |
| Solana | 3.6M × $0.00048 (base fee only, one signature) | ≈$1,700 plus priority fees |
| Avalanche, dedicated L1 | 4 validators × 1.33 AVAX × 36 months = 191.5 AVAX at $8.57 | ≈$1,600 plus servers |
| OP Mainnet | 3.6M × $0.00003 | ≈$110 |
| ISBE | €500 plan + 50,000 extra tx × €0.020 = €1,500 per month | ≈€54,000 |
| Canton | Depends on the bytes each transaction moves above the free tier | Model it with your own traffic |
| Your own Fabric or Besu network | No fees | Servers and operations |
Three caveats before you use these numbers:
- The median moves. In October, Ethereum's ranged from $0.016 on the cheapest day to $0.128 on the most expensive.
- Your transaction is not the median. A transfer with compliance rules runs more logic than a plain transfer, so measure the gas of yours on a testnet before you budget.
- The fee currency changes the bill. On Solana and Avalanche you pay in SOL or AVAX, so the cost moves with their price; Canton prices its fees in dollars and ISBE in euros.
At these volumes, network fees on a layer 2 or on Solana are a small line next to development, audits, nodes or an RPC provider, monitoring and compliance. The full breakdown is in how much a blockchain project costs. Factor in exit risk too: anyone running a Fabric network on Amazon Managed Blockchain has until September 30, 2027 to migrate.
Ranking by use case
Methodology
- For each use case we set a knockout filter: networks that fail it are out.
- We rank by the criterion that matters most for that case.
- We break ties with the other four criteria.
- We group networks into tiers when the data does not justify an exact position. Within a tier there is no order; we explain when each network fits.
All data comes from primary sources (official documentation, issuer announcements and public APIs) checked between October 16 and 31, 2026.
1. Regulated tokenization in the EU
Filter: transfer controls in the token itself and at least one regulated issuance on the network, completed or under way, that can be verified in a primary source. Main criterion: issuances and licenses with a European link. Rules apply to the asset, not the network: a tokenized security in Spain needs an ERIR, the registry entity Spain's Law 6/2023 requires (Art. 8.4), whichever network you choose.
- Tier 1: Ethereum and its layer 2s, and Avalanche. On Ethereum, ERC-3643 is a final standard, BUIDL launched there in 2024, and Robinhood launched its stock tokens for European customers on Arbitrum; layer 2s keep the median below $0.004. Avalanche brings a concrete European license: Securitize, authorized as an investment firm and as a trading and settlement system under the EU DLT Pilot Regime and registered with Spain's CNMV, announced it would launch that system on Avalanche.
- Tier 2: ISBE, Polygon and Solana. ISBE offers an ERC3643 template, verified identity for everyone who writes, and two ERIR projects still under way (Token City and Bit2Me STX); in exchange, every contract goes through its Factory and custom contracts take 2–12 weeks to approve. Polygon has BUIDL, FOBXX and private chains through CDK. Solana has issuer controls in Token-2022 and issuers such as BlackRock, State Street and Galaxy, but it means rewriting in Rust, it has a record of outages (the last one logged in February 2024) and its consensus is brand new.
- Tier 3: Canton and Hyperledger private networks. Canton suits market infrastructure: DTCC launched its tokenization service on Canton in October 2026, though in the US and with no European link. A private network gives you control but no secondary liquidity, and if the legally binding register lives elsewhere, the token is just a copy, as in the Tirios offering.
For the Spanish detail, read choosing a blockchain for regulated tokenization and tokenized securities on ISBE with ERC-3643 and an ERIR. Our service is asset tokenization, and for property, real estate tokenization.
2. Stablecoin payments
Filter: USDC issued natively on the network (Circle's CCTP list). Main criterion: native EURC as well, to collect and pay in euros, and cost per transaction. Unknown Gravity does not issue stablecoins: in the EU, an e-money token issuer must be authorized as a credit institution or an electronic money institution (MiCA, Art. 48).
- Tier 1: Base, Solana and Avalanche C-Chain. All three have native USDC and EURC and costs below $0.002, where the gap no longer decides anything. Base is EVM, and its documentation treats stablecoins, payments and compliance controls as native chain features. Solana charges a base fee of about $0.0005, but its consensus has only been live since October 21, 2026. Avalanche lets you start on the C-Chain and move to your own L1 later.
- Tier 2: OP Mainnet, Arbitrum and Polygon PoS. They have native USDC but no EURC on Circle's list. Of the five networks in this comparison that growthepie tracks, OP Mainnet has the lowest median ($0.00003); Polygon positions itself as payments infrastructure and offers deterministic finality in 2–5 seconds.
- Tier 3: Ethereum. It has both USDC and EURC, but with a $0.05 median it suits large treasury moves rather than frequent collections.
To add this to your business: stablecoin payment integration.
3. Private consortium
Filter: control over who participates and who sees each piece of data. Main criterion: privacy between participants and predictable cost. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) says organizations should favor permissioned blockchains when they process personal data, and document their reasons if they choose otherwise.
- Tier 1: Hyperledger Fabric and Besu. Fabric is permissioned, separates data with channels and private data, needs no cryptocurrency and supports contracts in Go, Java or Node.js. Besu gives you an EVM-compatible private network with QBFT consensus, immediate finality and an Apache 2.0 license. Neither has a public fee market: you pay for nodes and operations.
- Tier 2: Canton. Sub-transaction privacy (each party sees only its part) and multi-institution workflows through the Global Synchronizer. The trade-off: contracts in Daml and traffic fees in Canton Coin.
- Tier 3: your own chain connected to a public network. An Avalanche L1, a Polygon CDK chain, an Arbitrum chain with permissioned validators, or OP Enterprise. It makes sense if the consortium wants privacy now and access to public liquidity later.
More in private blockchains and the differences between public and private blockchains.
4. Public sector
Filter: verified identity for whoever writes, with public or controlled read access. Main criterion: governance and fit with the European framework.
- Tier 1: ISBE. It is public permissioned: anyone can query the explorer, and only organizations that have passed KYB and hold a did:isbe identifier can write. It is led by the Community of Madrid and operated by Alastria; it charges a subscription rather than gas, and its catalog includes verifiable credentials and certification. The EBSI connection is still in development.
- Tier 2: your own Besu or Fabric network. For agencies that need their own governance; Alastria's Network B, for example, runs on Besu.
- Tier 3: anchoring on a public layer 2. Record only fingerprints (hashes) so anyone can verify them cheaply. Never personal data: according to the EDPB, an unsalted or unkeyed hash is not enough to protect personal data on a public blockchain.
See how ISBE, Alastria and EBSI differ, ISBE onboarding, requirements and fees and our digital identity management service.
Other networks: BNB Chain, Bitcoin and Tempo
- BNB Chain is EVM-compatible, but on BNB Smart Chain Circle's CCTP supports only USYC, not USDC. USDC payments would need a bridge.
- Bitcoin had a median fee of $0.012 in the 24 hours before our October 31, 2026 check (Blockchair), but it is not built for complex contracts: it fits payments and proof anchoring better than tokenization with transfer rules.
- Tempo is an EVM-based network for stablecoin products: fees are paid in dollar stablecoins with no native gas token, and it advertises deterministic sub-second finality. Its documentation already treats mainnet as live; we will add it once it has more track record we can verify.
When NOT to use blockchain
The EDPB asks this directly in its July 2026 guidelines: why is a blockchain necessary for this processing, and what are the alternatives? These are the signs you do not need one:
- A single party writes and nobody outside needs to verify. A database with an audit log is usually simpler to run.
- The data is personal and must be erasable or correctable. It does not go on-chain: at most a cryptographic commitment, with the data stored off-chain.
- The real problem is whether the input is true. The chain proves nobody changed the data after it was recorded, not that it was accurate; that depends on the oracle, the sensor or whoever signs.
- The legally binding register is somewhere else. If the law gives effect to a transfer agent's or depository's books, the chain is a copy: work out whether it is worth maintaining.
- You expect regulation to require it. MiCA is technology-neutral, and Spain's Law 6/2023 allows distributed ledgers without mandating them.
Status as of October 31, 2026
- Solana: Alpenglow has been live since October 21, 2026 (epoch 1064). Phase 2 (Rotor) is not scheduled.
- Amazon Managed Blockchain: closed to new customers since October 29, 2026; existing customers can use it until September 30, 2027.
- Base: announced on February 18, 2026 that it is moving off the OP Stack to its own stack; it stays compatible with the OP Stack specification and remains an OP Enterprise client.
- DTCC on Canton: on July 15, 2026, DTCC and more than 30 firms completed real production trades using DTC-tokenized assets, and on October 28, 2026, DTCC announced that its tokenization service is live, integrated with Canton and its private Besu network.
- Securitize on Avalanche: announced on November 26, 2025, with the first issuance expected in early 2026; we have not confirmed in a primary source that it has taken place.
- ISBE: fees come from ADM1010 policy v1.0, dated December 16, 2025, a versioned document that may change. The EBSI connection is still in development.
How we help you choose a network
At Unknown Gravity we run this comparison with your project's data: expected volume, who writes, which rules apply to the asset, which data is personal and which provider you accept to run the nodes. What we review: the 3-year cost with your own transaction measured on a testnet, the exit plan if the network changes or the provider shuts down, and the token's controls against what your legal counsel requires.
If you have not chosen a network yet, start with blockchain consulting. If you have, see blockchain development, smart contract development or tokenization platform development; and if you would rather not run nodes, blockchain as a service. By network: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana, ISBE, BNB Chain and Bitcoin. Or simply book a meeting.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best enterprise blockchain in 2026?
It depends on the use case. Based on data as of October 31, 2026: Ethereum and its layer 2s with ERC-3643, along with Avalanche, for regulated tokenization in the EU; Base, Solana and Avalanche for stablecoin payments; Hyperledger Fabric or Besu for a private consortium; and ISBE for the Spanish public sector. None of them wins on all five criteria at once.
Which managed blockchain suits a bank or a fintech?
First decide whether you need a shared network or a dedicated chain. For a managed dedicated chain, options include AvaCloud (Avalanche L1s), OP Enterprise (OP Stack), Polygon CDK and the rollup-as-a-service providers for Arbitrum chains; Canton fits multi-institution workflows that need privacy. Always ask for the service agreement and the exit plan: Amazon Managed Blockchain stopped accepting new customers on October 29, 2026. More context in blockchain for financial services: cases and requirements.
How much does an enterprise blockchain cost over 3 years?
Network cost alone, at 100,000 transactions a month and prices as of October 31, 2026: about $6,100 on Base, $13,500 on Arbitrum One, $34,000 on Polygon PoS and $190,000 on Ethereum, or €54,000 in ISBE subscription fees. Development, audits, nodes, monitoring and compliance come on top.
Public or permissioned blockchain for a company?
Public if you need liquidity, outside investors or open verification; permissioned if there is personal or confidential data and a small set of known participants. The EDPB says organizations should favor permissioned blockchains when they process personal data. Many architectures combine both: data on a private network and anchoring or issuance on a public one.
What does Alpenglow change on Solana?
Alpenglow has been live since October 21, 2026. It replaces the previous consensus protocol, targets finality of about 150 ms and leaves execution and fees unchanged. Vote transactions are no longer in blocks, and the “confirmed” and “finalized” states now mean the same thing, so indexers and monitoring need a review.
Sources
- growthepie: transaction costs (API data, Oct 1–30, 2026)
- Blockchair: Bitcoin stats
- Snowscan: Avalanche C-Chain gas tracker
- Avalanche: ACP-77, L1 validator fee
- Avalanche: L1 documentation
- AvaCloud
- Solana: fees
- Solana: Alpenglow upgrade and Anza: Alpenglow
- Solana: Permissioned Environments (SPEs)
- Solana: status page
- Circle: CCTP chains and EURC chains
- Amazon Managed Blockchain: end of support notice
- Google Cloud: Blockchain Node Engine
- OP Labs: OP Enterprise
- Base: a new, unified stack for Base Chain and Base documentation
- Arbitrum: introduction, dedicated chains and rollup-as-a-service providers
- Polygon: PoS and CDK
- Hyperledger Fabric: introduction and Besu documentation
- Kaleido
- Canton: what it is, synchronizer traffic and fees
- DTCC and Digital Asset: Treasuries on Canton, DTCC: production trades (Jul 15, 2026) and DTCC: tokenization service goes live (Oct 28, 2026)
- Securitize: EU approval and Avalanche
- BlackRock: BUIDL on Ethereum and BUIDL on Solana and six other networks and BUIDL on five more networks (Nov 2024)
- Franklin Templeton: FOBXX SAI
- Robinhood: stock tokens in the EU
- State Street and Galaxy: SWEEP and J.P. Morgan: commercial paper on Solana
- SEC: Tirios Propco Series LLC offering circular
- ISBE: network parameters, smart contract FAQ, use case catalog (articles on Token City and Bit2Me STX) and legal repository (ADM1010)
- ERC-3643 and ethereum.org: development frameworks
- Tempo: documentation
- EDPB: Guidelines 02/2025 on blockchain, version 2.0
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) and Spain's Law 6/2023 (BOE, consolidated text)
This article is for information only and is not legal, financial or technical advice. Cost figures are measurements or published fees as of October 31, 2026, and they change with each network's usage and token prices. The rules that apply depend on the asset and its issuer: read MiCA on EUR-Lex and get advice before you decide.