Ethereum has seen a significant increase in user engagement, with the creation of new wallets hitting record levels. According to analysts at Santiment, the network averaged over 327,000 new wallets each day last week, culminating in a peak of 393,600 new wallets on January 11.
This surge brought the total number of unique addresses with non-zero balances to 172.9 million. Several factors are driving this growth, notably:
- Fusaka upgrade: Launched in December 2025, this improvement has lowered transaction fees and enhanced data processing capabilities for layer two networks.
- Stablecoin activity: In the fourth quarter of 2025, Ethereum transactions involving stablecoins reached an impressive $8 trillion.
- Market sentiment shift: There are signs that investor sentiment is turning positive, with retail investors returning to decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and gaming sectors.
As user activity intensified, gas fees decreased significantly. On January 13, Ethereum managed to process over 2.1 million transactions, with average fees dropping to just $0.15 — a stark contrast to averages of around $11 a year prior and peaks over $200 during 2021-2022.
