On Sunday, January 11, 2026, the Ethereum network saw an unprecedented 393,600 new wallets created in a 24-hour period, setting a new all-time high for daily user growth.
This historic spike in network adoption came even as Ethereum’s native ETH token is trading below its 2025 peak, suggesting a powerful wave of new users is being driven by utility and upgrades rather than speculative price action alone.
A Network Activity Explosion
According to data from Santiment, Ethereum averaged more than 327,000 new addresses daily across the past week, culminating in Sunday’s record. The analytics firm linked the rise to a mix of technical upgrades, practical usage, and shifting market mood.
According to them, one major factor is the Fusaka upgrade, deployed in early December 2025. The update changed how data is processed on Ethereum and lowered the cost for Layer-2 networks to post data back to the main chain. Lower fees and smoother interactions made it easier for users to engage with decentralized apps, rollups, and on-chain services, often starting with the creation of a new wallet.
Stablecoin usage has also played a central role. Santiment noted that Ethereum processed about $8 trillion in stablecoin transfers during the fourth quarter of 2025, the highest quarterly figure on record. Such volumes point to the blockchain’s role in payments and settlement, drawing in users who need wallets to hold or move dollar-pegged tokens.
Social data suggests fresh participants have been entering the ecosystem since December, even while ETH traded sideways. Santiment added that sentiment among holders shifted from negative to neutral or slightly positive in mid-December, a change that often lines up with increased retail onboarding around the turn of the year.
Price Action Firms Up as Traders Rebuild Positions
At the time of writing, ETH was trading around $3,300, up about 6% in the last 24 hours and more than 2% over seven days. However, the move trails the wider crypto market, which gained close to 4% in the same weekly window, showing the asset has not led the latest market bounce.
Meanwhile, on a 30-day view, ETH is up about 6%, while it remains roughly 33% below its all-time high near $4,900 set in August 2025.
Traders on X have focused on nearby technical levels. Ted Pillows wrote that ETH clearing $3,300 puts attention on $3,450, while warning that failure there could pull prices back. Another analyst, CW, flagged sell pressure near $3,700.
Derivatives data has also added context to the move. Analysis firm Arab Chain reported that Ethereum open interest on Binance climbed to about $8.6 billion, the highest since October 9, 2025. The rise follows a steep reset in the same month, when liquidations pushed open interest below $7 billion.
That backdrop lines up with a previous analysis that highlighted a bullish crossover on Ethereum’s higher-timeframe charts and growing attention on the ETH/BTC pair. Together with record wallet creation, the data paints a picture of an ecosystem seeing deeper engagement, even before a clear breakout in price takes shape.