Points of Focus

• Fusaka upgrade cut layer-2 costs, driving a 110% jump in new wallets and lowering barriers to real user onboarding.
• Q4 stablecoin transfers on Ethereum topped $8T as daily transactions passed 2.2M.
• ETF inflows, institutional settlement rails, and 31K+ developers are enabling Ethereum as rails for financial infrastructure.

Ethereum’s network growth metrics have recently delivered a clear signal: adoption is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Over the past week, Ethereum has been averaging roughly 327,000 new wallet creations per day, including a single day where 393,600 new addresses were registered – the highest ever recorded.

This surge in wallet creation is more than just a statistical curiosity; it reflects deeper structural shifts in how users engage with Ethereum’s blockchain. 

Protocol upgrades trigger structural onboarding growth

A significant catalyst for the recent surge in wallet creation is the Fusaka upgrade, deployed on December 3, 2025. This upgrade introduced technical improvements, such as Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), that lowered the cost of posting layer-2 (L2) data back onto the Ethereum mainnet.

By reducing friction for L2 rollups and decentralized applications, Fusaka made it cheaper and easier for new users to interact with Ethereum. On-chain data shows new address creation jumped more than 110% since the upgrade, pushing daily new wallets to around 292,000 before the recent spike and then extending further to record levels.

This suggests that the wallet growth is structural rather than purely speculative, rooted in improved usability and economic efficiency. In general, when it costs less to use a blockchain, more users are willing to onboard and explore decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, games, and other applications without being deterred by fees.

Real-world activity: Stablecoins and transactions surging

On-chain data reinforces the narrative that Ethereum’s network is experiencing not just more wallets but more substantive usage. During the fourth quarter of 2025:

• Stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum exceeded $8 trillion, nearly double the figure from the previous quarter.
• Daily transaction counts surpassed 2.2 million, representing a sharp increase in overall network engagement.
• Active address counts also climbed significantly and the number of non-empty Ethereum wallets climbed to 172.9 million, indicating that participation isn’t isolated to a small cohort of large holders.

The scale of these transactions suggests that the network’s utility as a settlement and financial infrastructure layer is growing, even in periods where price action may be relatively sideways.

Macro and sentiment drivers: Beyond technology

Beyond network upgrades, institutional involvement in Ethereum is translating into measurable capital flows and on-chain usage. By late 2025, US spot Ethereum ETFs were managing tens of billions of dollars in combined assets and recording consistent net inflows, expanding regulated access to ETH through traditional brokerage and retirement accounts. 

At the same time, institutional adoption is also visible in how financial firms are using Ethereum-based rails. JPMorgan’s Onyx platform, Citi’s tokenized cash pilots, and multiple asset managers issuing tokenized funds and Treasuries rely on Ethereum-compatible infrastructure, reflecting trust in its security and liquidity. 

On the network side, developer activity remains the largest in crypto, with 31,869 active monthly developers (as of October 2025) and hundreds of new applications launched annually across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and payments. 

Combined, ETF inflows, institutional settlement volumes, and expanding app ecosystems are pulling in new users who are not just creating wallets, but actively staking, bridging to layer-2s, and transacting across decentralized services, reinforcing the link between capital markets adoption and on-chain growth.