Ethereum is witnessing a record flood of fresh wallets as the network shrugs off last month’s slump. Over the past week, the chain has been churning out roughly 327,100 new Ether wallets every day. Sunday even set a blistering new all-time high, with about 393,600 wallets minted in a single 24-hour sprint.
This surge lands as the broader crypto market flashes green. The total value of digital assets has climbed over 4% in the last 24 hours, hitting $3.25 trillion. Ether’s price has jumped more than 7% over the past 30 days, a move that coincides with Bitcoin muscling back above the $95K level.
The wallet explosion follows the Fusaka upgrade deployed in early December. That tweak overhauled how data is handled, making it far cheaper for Layer 2s to post info back to the main chain. The result? Average gas fees have crumbled to 0.051 Gwei, letting users trade and transact without feeling like they’re funding a small moon mission.
Cheaper fees are turning the network back into a playground. Santiment data shows stablecoin transfers on Ethereum notched a record late last year, with total volumes hitting around $8 trillion in Q4. That scale of payments and settlement often means fresh wallets, hinting that users were busy buying the dip. Trends from late December into January also suggest new entrants are poking around DeFi games and NFT apps, though the holiday lull might be adding a bit of seasonal spice.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has flipped from “Fear” to “Neutral” after weeks of gloom. Ether struggled to hold above $3,300 for the past two months, but a fresh shove finally broke the barrier, surging almost 8% in the last 24 hours to trade around $3,348. It’s not quite “lambo season,” but the mood is definitely less doomsday.
Meanwhile, activity across decentralized apps is cooling off. DefiLlama data shows aggregate DEX volumes over the past two weeks totaled $150.4 billion, a sharp slide from the $340 billion record set in January 2025. Ethereum’s seven-day DEX volumes have hovered near $9 billion, down from a peak of $27.8 billion in October. The degens aren’t fully gone, but the punch bowl is looking a bit emptier.
Derivatives markets are also dialing down the drama. 30-day implied volatility measures for Bitcoin and Ether have declined, signaling traders expect fewer fireworks in the near term. Even with geopolitical headaches and ETF flows sloshing around, the options market is pricing in a bit more calm—at least for now.
Meanwhile, SharpLink Gaming has beefed up its Ether stash, accumulating more than 865,000 ETH. The pile was worth about $2.75 billion as of Tuesday. Last week, SharpLink deployed $170 million worth of ether onto the Linea layer two network, because apparently one giant ETH treasury wasn’t enough.
