The recent surge in activity on Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, may be attributed to a wave of "address poisoning" attacks. This theory is supported by blockchain security expert Andrey Sergeenkov.
Record-high Ethereum activity that everyone's celebrating is an address poisoning attack.
— Andrey Sergeenkov (@Nikopolos) January 19, 2026
— Over $740K already stolen, and growing
— This became possible thanks to the Fusaka upgrade
— This attack is ongoing right nowhttps://t.co/cqoEvqttQd
In January, Ethereum hit a historic high in transaction volume, with a seven-day average approaching 2.5 million transactions—double last year's figures.
Analysts at Glassnode also reported a twofold increase in user retention on the blockchain.
Sergeenkov suggested that the increase is due to widespread spam attacks. Following the December Fusaka upgrade, which reduced transaction fees by over 60%, such schemes have become economically viable for scammers (with a conversion rate of 0.01%).
"I wanted to find out what caused the surge in address creation, and it turned out that this unusual 80% increase was due to stablecoin transactions. Then I needed to understand their nature. I calculated how many users received less than $1 in their first transaction, and it turned out that 67% of wallets (3.86 million out of 5.78 million) fit this pattern," Sergeenkov noted.
How Does Address Poisoning Work?
To identify scam addresses, the expert analyzed all USDT/USDC transactions under $1 from December 15, 2025, to January 18, 2026, and highlighted those that sent funds to at least 10,000 different wallets.
These addresses turned out to be smart contracts that automate the mass distribution of "dust" to a large number of random users, effectively "cluttering" their transaction history.
The essence of the attack lies in deception through similarity. Scammers deliberately generate addresses that visually resemble legitimate ones (for example, matching beginnings and endings).
When a user later sees a "similar" address in their transaction history, they may mistakenly copy it and send a large transfer to the scammer, believing they are sending funds to a known counterpart.
According to Sergeenkov, this method has already deceived 116 individuals, stealing over $740,000. One victim lost $509,003. Source: Andrey Sergeenkov.
The researcher blamed Ethereum developers for the rise in attacks:
"You cannot scale infrastructure without first addressing user security! And while the industry celebrates record metrics, people are losing their funds because Ethereum developers improved the architecture for mass attacks," he wrote.
Another Record
The L2 network MegaETH achieved 47,000 TPS during testing.
Ok @megaeth you have our attention, we see you testing things out.
— growthepie 🥧📏 (@growthepie_eth) January 16, 2026
Over 45k TPS, that's more transactions in 1 second than some chains have in a whole day. Excited to see this capacity put to good use! https://t.co/9AqJIOqJXv pic.twitter.com/LHuBfLrV6Q
"We see you testing the network. More than 45,000 TPS is more transactions in one second than some chains process in an entire day. We can't wait to see this power put to good use!" — wrote growthepie.
Developers announced a "global stress test" on January 22. For a week, the blockchain will operate under heavy load, targeting 15,000-45,000 TPS.
The MegaETH Global Stress Test
— MegaETH (@megaeth) January 19, 2026
11B transactions in 7 days.
On Jan 22nd, we’re opening mainnet to users for several latency-sensitive apps while the chain is under intense sustained load.
Ultra-low fees. Real-time transactions.
Public Mainnet in the days that follow. pic.twitter.com/ZIOZnctCZJ
The goal is to process 11 billion transactions.
Users will gain access to Web3 applications like stomp.gg, Smasher, and Crossy Fluffle. Meanwhile, the team will stress the network with Ethereum transfers and swaps.
MegaETH positions itself as the "first real-time blockchain," optimized for speed rather than decentralization, aiming to exceed 100,000 TPS.
Recall that in October, following a token sale, the project raised $1.39 billion, with oversubscription exceeding 27x.