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RPC Network Health - May 2026

A monthly analysis of Ethereum RPC visibility across regions, showing where blocks appear first and how consistently providers observe them inside each region.

Block visibility latency is not the same as RPC response latency.

This report measures when new blocks become visible across infrastructure, not how fast an RPC endpoint responds to a request.

Read the explainer →

Executive Summary

  • US-East had the highest first-seen share, seeing 42.96% of blocks before any other monitored region.
  • Regional visibility spread: the median first-to-last regional spread was 130ms, with p95 at 262ms and p99 at 327ms.
  • Median provider timing varied inside regions. EU-West had the lowest median same-region provider spread at 312ms, while US-Central had the highest at 486ms.
  • The widest single-block regional spread was 7.85s, measured between the first monitored region and the last monitored region to observe the same block.
Median Regional Spread
130ms
First-to-last region timing gap
First-Seen Leader
US-East
42.96% of first observations
Provider Spread
411ms
Median same-region provider timing gap
Largest Regional Spread
7.85s
Max first-to-last regional first-seen spread
Coverage: 222,462 blocks were observed across all monitored regions.

1. First-Seen by Region

For each block, QuantLoop reports which monitored region saw the block first.

How to read this
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This section answers: which monitored region saw each new Ethereum block first?
Because each region has multiple monitored providers, QuantLoop uses the earliest provider observation in each region.

Values labeled "pts vs last month" show the percentage-point change from the previous monthly report.

First-Seen Share by Region
Share of blocks first observed by each monitored region.
US-East42.96%+4.01 pts vs last month
EU-West24.70%+7.95 pts vs last month
EU-Central19.71%+2.06 pts vs last month
AP-Northeast6.12%-6.23 pts vs last month
US-Central4.86%-4.44 pts vs last month
US-West1.65%-3.35 pts vs last month

2. Same-Region Provider Spread

For each block, QuantLoop measures how far apart monitored providers were within the same region. A lower spread means providers in that region saw the block at nearly the same time. A higher spread means visibility was less uniform.

How to read this
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This section measures whether providers in the same region observed each block at roughly the same time.

provider_spread_ms = latest_provider_seen_at - earliest_provider_seen_at

Lower spread means stronger internal consistency.

Provider spread by region
Provider timing differences within each region.

US-East

p50

460ms

p95

1075ms

p99

3327ms

EU-West

p50

312ms

p95

844ms

p99

3444ms

EU-Central

p50

369ms

p95

2144ms

p99

3959ms

AP-Northeast

p50

454ms

p95

2940ms

p99

4691ms

US-Central

p50

486ms

p95

2495ms

p99

4451ms

US-West

p50

435ms

p95

3285ms

p99

5368ms

3. Largest Regional Visibility Spreads

Blocks with the widest timing gap between the first region that saw the block and the last region that saw it.

How to read this
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This section answers a simple question: for the same block, how far apart were the first regional observations?

For each block, QuantLoop takes the earliest observation within each region. Regional visibility spread is the time between the earliest regional first-seen timestamp and the latest regional first-seen timestamp.

Largest regional visibility spreads
Top 5 single-hash blocks with the widest first-seen spread across monitored regions.
Rank #1
0x4d470d…a2e41d
Spread
7.85s
Rank #2
0x27bd7c…7efdcf
Spread
3.41s
Rank #3
0x1ed20e…3df395
Spread
3.22s
Rank #4
0x6fe9c1…b31d8d
Spread
3.07s
Rank #5
0xcad215…46a1f3
Spread
2.97s

4. Missing Observations

For each region, QuantLoop measures how often expected provider observations were not seen during the report window.

How to read this
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This section measures completeness, not latency.

For each canonical block and region, QuantLoop expects one observation from each monitored provider. In this report, that means 6 expected provider observations per block per region.

Block observations missed is the number of expected provider observations that QuantLoop did not observe.
Missing observation rate is the missed observation count divided by the total expected observations.

Lower values mean the region had more complete provider visibility during the report window.

A missing observation does not necessarily mean a provider was unavailable. It means the expected provider/block/region observation was not seen during the report window.

Missing observations by region

US-East

Missed obs.

33

Missing rate

0.0025%

EU-West

Missed obs.

340

Missing rate

0.025%

EU-Central

Missed obs.

1057

Missing rate

0.079%

AP-Northeast

Missed obs.

283

Missing rate

0.021%

US-Central

Missed obs.

217

Missing rate

0.016%

US-West

Missed obs.

346

Missing rate

0.026%

Report Methodology
How the metrics are calculated.
Expand
  • Blocks are observed from multiple geographic regions using a fixed set of commercial Ethereum RPC providers.
  • Public reports aggregate provider behavior without naming individual providers.
  • For each provider, only the first observed time for a given block is used.
  • Regional spread measures the time between the first and last region to observe a block.
  • Provider spread measures timing differences between providers inside the same region.
  • Partial or transient divergent block hashes are excluded from aggregate visibility metrics and may be analyzed separately.
  • Results reflect QuantLoop's measurement setup, not the entire Ethereum network.