Ethereum’s network experiences explosive user growth and transaction volume, fueled by L2 adoption and stablecoin activity.
Ethereum’s user base is exhibiting its stickiest behavior in years, with Month-over-Month Activity Retention nearly doubling in the last 30 days.
Data from Glassnode confirms the network added roughly 4 million new active addresses this month, bringing the monthly total to 8 million. Unlike previous spikes driven by airdrop farming, this surge coincides with a doubling in retention rates for the “New” cohort.
Ethereum’s Month-over-Month Activity Retention shows a sharp spike in the “New” cohort, indicating a surge in first-time interacting addresses over the past 30 days.
This reflects a notable influx of new wallets engaging with the Ethereum network, rather than activity being… pic.twitter.com/h8Zw7hXOSX— glassnode (@glassnode) January 15, 2026
ETH ETH $2 025 24h volatility: 3.0% Market cap: $244.63 B Vol. 24h: $27.44 B trades at $3,310 (-1.6%), consolidating recent gains.
The Data: Stickiness over Speculation
The breakdown from on-chain analytics providers highlights a fundamental shift:
- Active addresses surged from ~410,000 to >1 million year-over-year (Etherscan).
- Daily throughput hit a record 2.8 million transactions, a 125% YoY increase.
Glassnode wrote:
“Ethereum’s Month-over-Month Activity Retention shows a sharp spike in the ‘New’ cohort, indicating a surge in first-time interacting addresses over the past 30 days.”
Execution vs. Settlement
The volume spike paradoxically correlates with lower average fees. This validates the roadmap efficacy. Mainnet is successfully offloading execution to Layer-2s (Arbitrum, Base, Optimism) while capturing value through final settlement and stablecoin transfers.
The 2.8 million daily transaction figure reflects the capacity expansion from the recent Fusaka upgrade, which increased block sizes by roughly 33%.
Confidence around Ethereum is improving, with indicators pointing to higher prices fueled by capital inflows into ETFs, stablecoins, and crypto protocols. Staking now locks over 50% of Ether’s total supply. Some market observers, however, note a disconnect between strong on-chain metrics and price action. They reflect skepticism about its value accrual model and macroeconomic headwinds.
The Institutional Take
For desk traders, the “New Address” count is usually a vanity metric often polluted by Sybils. The alpha here is the retention doubling.
High retention in a low-fee environment suggests these are actual users (likely interacting via stablecoins or DeFi front-ends) rather than bot nets, which typically exhibit high churn. If this cohort sustains activity through Q1, re-rate ETH’s valuation models to weight “network utility” higher than “deflationary supply,” especially as L2 blob revenue stabilizes.
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