Ethereum has closed the year with a major on-chain milestone. The network recorded its highest number of daily transactions ever, overtaking levels last seen during the peak of the 2021 NFT and DeFi boom. At the same time, both new and active addresses surged to multi-year highs, underlining renewed momentum across the Ethereum ecosystem.
A New Record for Ethereum Network Activity
The seven-day moving average of daily transactions on Ethereum reached 1.87 million on Dec. 31. This marks a new all-time high, exceeding the previous peak of 1.61 million transactions recorded on May 10, 2021, when NFT trading and decentralized finance usage were exploding.
The latest figure also surpasses the more recent local high of 1.73 million transactions set on Aug. 9, 2025. The data highlights a sustained increase in Ethereum blockchain usage rather than a short-lived spike.
Active and New Addresses Surge to Multi-Year Highs
Ethereum’s address activity also strengthened significantly toward the end of the year. The number of active addresses climbed to 728,904 on Dec. 31, the highest level since May 12, 2021. This signals broader user participation across applications, wallets, and protocols built on Ethereum.
At the same time, the network registered 270,160 new addresses in a single day. This represents the largest daily increase in new Ethereum addresses since early 2018, pointing to a fresh wave of adoption and renewed interest from both retail and institutional participants.
Why Ethereum Usage Is Rising Again
Market analysts point to a combination of technical improvements and institutional demand as the main drivers behind the surge in Ethereum transactions. Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, noted that recent network upgrades have played a critical role by reducing fees, improving scalability, and making Ethereum more attractive for large-scale use cases.
Lower transaction costs and better performance have coincided with growing interest in Ethereum-based ETFs and real-world asset tokenization, bringing new capital and activity onto the network.
Ethereum Upgrades Fueling Scalability and Efficiency
Throughout 2025, Ethereum implemented two major protocol upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, both designed to strengthen the network’s long-term scalability and efficiency.
Pectra expanded blob throughput, introduced account abstraction to improve wallet usability, and increased validator staking limits. Fusaka followed by activating PeerDAS, which streamlined data availability sampling and allowed higher blob counts without adding extra strain on nodes. Alongside higher gas limits and continued zkEVM performance improvements, these changes significantly reduced costs while reinforcing Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap.
More Ethereum Upgrades Coming in 2026
Ethereum’s development roadmap continues into 2026 with two major upgrades already planned. Glamsterdam, expected in early to mid-2026, will focus on boosting overall network performance and further decentralizing the protocol. Later in the year, the Hegota upgrade is set to improve Ethereum’s long-term sustainability and resilience.
Despite increasing competition from alternative blockchains, Ethereum remains the dominant platform for stablecoins, real-world assets, staking, yield protocols, trading, gaming, and NFTs. Justin d’Anethan, head of research at Arctic Digital, emphasized that most of this activity is still either native to Ethereum or fully EVM-compatible, keeping Ethereum at the center of Web3 infrastructure.
ETH Price Holds Above $3,000
Amid the surge in on-chain activity, Ethereum’s native token, ETH, also showed positive price movement. As of 5:05 a.m. ET on Friday, ETH was trading at $3,044, up 2.17% over the past 24 hours.
With transaction volumes at record levels and network upgrades continuing to roll out, Ethereum is entering the new year with strong fundamentals and renewed attention from both users and large investors alike.
