Ethereum’s network activity has risen to record levels across multiple metrics, but the growth has failed to lift ether’s price or increase fee generation at the base layer.
A weekly report from research firm CryptoQuant published on March 10 showed that daily active addresses on Ethereum approached 2 million in February 2026, surpassing the peaks seen in the 2021 bull market. Active addresses are unique blockchain wallet addresses that have sent or received a transaction within a specific time frame, e.g. the last 24 hours
Smart contract calls, or codes on the blockchain that tell it to do something specific, topped 40 million per day, and token transfers driven by internal contract interactions also set records. The results point to broad adoption across DeFi, stablecoins and automated protocol activity, even as investment demand for ether has weakened.
Record network user activity typically bodes well for the market value of the blockchain’s native token. But that is not the case with Ethereum.
Its native token ether has fallen about 30% over the past six months, and the one-year change in Ethereum’s realized capitalization has turned negative, indicating net capital outflows from the market.
Exchange flow data from CryptoQuant shows that ether is moving to trading venues at a faster rate than bitcoin, a pattern consistent with increased selling pressure.
Focus on capital flows
CryptoQuant argued that capital flows, rather than network activity, now explain ETH price dynamics more effectively.
In previous cycles, particularly 2018 and 2021, increasing on-chain activity coincided with price increases. That relationship has weakened. The firm’s scatter analysis showed that recent observations clustered around high levels of activity but relatively low prices, suggesting that incremental growth in usage now has less explanatory power for ether’s valuation.
The fee image reinforces the disconnect. Data from DefiLlama shows that Ethereum has generated about $10.3 million in transaction fees over the past 30 days, placing it third behind Tron at nearly $25 million and Solana at about $20 million.
On a revenue basis, the difference widens further. Ethereum ranked fifth in 30-day protocol revenue at $1.22 million, behind Tron as well as Polygon, Base and Solana. Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network built by Coinbase, generated roughly three times Ethereum’s protocol revenue during the same period.
The difference reflects the growing role played by Ethereum’s layer-2 ecosystem. Networks like Base and Polygon process large volumes of transactions while paying relatively small settlement costs back to the base chain, distributing economic activity across the wider Ethereum ecosystem rather than concentrating it on the base layer.
Stablecoins remain a bright spot for adoption. Ethereum hosts approximately $162 billion in stablecoin supply, about 52% of the global market, according to DefiLlama. Yet that activity has not translated into proportional value capture for ether itself.
Ethereum may be busier than ever, but blockchain’s native asset captures less of the value created on top of it.
