Ethereum's network activity hits new highs with daily active addresses and smart contract calls reaching all-time peaks. However, ether's value has dropped
Network Activity Reaches New Heights
Ethereum's network activity has surged to unprecedented levels, with multiple metrics setting all-time highs. Daily active addresses approached 2 million in February 2026, surpassing the peaks seen during the 2021 bull market. Additionally, smart contract calls, or codes on the blockchain that instruct specific actions, reached over 40 million per day, while token transfers driven by internal contract interactions also established new records. This widespread activity points to significant adoption across decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, and automated protocol operations, despite a decline in investment demand for ether.
Eth's Value vs. Network Activity
Despite the robust network activity, Ethereum's native token, ether, has experienced a notable decline in value. Over the past six months, ether has seen a price drop of approximately 30%. The one-year change in Ethereum’s realized capitalization has also turned negative, suggesting net capital outflows from the market. CryptoQuant’s analysis indicates that capital flows now explain ETH's price dynamics more effectively than network activity. In previous cycles, particularly 2018 and 2021, increased on-chain activity was closely tied to price rallies, but this relationship has weakened. Recent observations show high activity levels but relatively low prices, indicating that incremental usage growth now has less explanatory power for ether’s valuation.
Fee Generation Discrepancies
The fee picture further highlights the disconnect between network activity and value capture. According to DefiLlama, Ethereum generated approximately $10.3 million in transaction fees over the past 30 days, placing it third behind Tron and Solana. On a revenue basis, the gap widens even further. Ethereum ranked fifth in 30-day protocol revenue at $1.22 million, trailing Tron as well as Polygon, Base, and Solana. Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network built by Coinbase, generated roughly three times the protocol revenue of Ethereum over the same period. This disparity underscores the growing role of Ethereum’s layer-2 ecosystem, which processes large volumes of transactions while paying relatively small settlement costs back to the base chain, thereby distributing economic activity across the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Stablecoin Adoption
Stablecoins remain a bright spot in Ethereum's ecosystem, hosting approximately $162 billion in supply, which represents roughly 52% of the global market, according to DefiLlama. However, this significant stablecoin activity has not translated into proportional value capture for ether itself. Ethereum is busier than ever, but the blockchain’s native asset is capturing less of the value created on top of it.
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