Activity on the Ethereum mainnet has overtaken that of all major layer-2 scaling networks, driven by sharply reduced transaction costs.
Data providers observed a renewed shift back toward the base layer after months of growing dominance by layer-2 platforms.
Token Terminal reported a clear “return to mainnet,” with Ethereum recording more daily active addresses than any leading scaling network.
Spike In Active Addresses
Daily active addresses on Ethereum recently climbed close to one million, reflecting a sharp increase in network usage.
Activity peaked in mid-January at roughly 1.3 million addresses before easing back to around 945,000.
Even after cooling, the figure remains higher than activity levels on Arbitrum One, Base Chain, and OP Mainnet.
The combined value secured across all layer-2 networks currently stands at about $45 billion, representing a notable decline over the past year.
The resurgence in mainnet activity follows December’s Fusaka upgrade, which significantly lowered gas fees.
Concerns Over Non-Organic Usage
Not all of the recent activity appears to be driven by genuine user demand.
Security researcher Andrey Sergeenkov said some of the increase may stem from address poisoning and dusting attacks.
These attacks involve scammers sending small transactions from wallet addresses designed to mimic legitimate ones.
The goal is to trick users into copying fraudulent addresses during future transfers.
Lower transaction fees have made such attacks cheaper and easier to execute at scale.
Analysts at blockchain security firm Cyvers said the data suggests malicious activity is playing a meaningful role.
“It’s reasonable to conclude that the recent spike in Ethereum network activity is being materially driven by address poisoning campaigns.”
They added that behavioral patterns and statistical correlations point to poisoning as a significant contributor rather than a minor factor.
Ethereum’s Role In Tokenization
Despite concerns around spam activity, Ethereum continues to dominate the on-chain asset economy.
ARK Invest said the network remains the leading blockchain for asset tokenization worldwide.
Assets issued on Ethereum now exceed $400 billion in value.
The global market for tokenized assets could surpass $11 trillion by 2030, according to industry projections.
Stablecoins account for the majority of tokenized value on the network.
Ethereum currently hosts about 56% of all on-chain stablecoins.
When layer-2 networks are included, Ethereum’s share of tokenized real-world assets rises to roughly 66%.
These figures reinforce Ethereum’s central position in digital finance, even as questions remain about the quality of recent activity.
