Activity on the Ethereum mainnet has climbed above that of layer-2 scaling networks as transaction fees remain low, although not all of the increase may reflect genuine user demand. Data from Token Terminal showed on Thursday that there has been a clear “return to mainnet,” with Ethereum now posting more daily active addresses than any of the major layer-2 blockchains.

Daily active address counts recently approached the one-million mark. Etherscan data shows activity peaking at roughly 1.3 million addresses on Jan. 16 before easing back to around 945,000 active addresses per day. Even at those levels, Ethereum exceeds activity across layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum One, Base Chain and OP Mainnet. At the same time, the total value locked across all layer-2 networks stands at about $45 billion, down 17% over the past year, according to L2Beat.

The increase in mainnet usage followed the Fusaka upgrade in December, which significantly lowered gas fees and made onchain activity cheaper. However, questions remain about how much of the recent surge reflects authentic usage.

Low fees enable rise in address poisoning

Some of the heightened activity may be linked to malicious behavior. Security researcher Andrey Sergeenkov said on Monday that dusting and address poisoning attacks could be contributing to the jump in transactions. Address poisoning typically involves sending small transfers from wallet addresses designed to look similar to legitimate ones, increasing the risk that users mistakenly copy and reuse the wrong address.

Lower transaction costs have made this type of activity more economically viable, allowing attackers to send large volumes of spam transactions at minimal expense. Analysts at blockchain security firm Cyvers told Cointelegraph that “It’s reasonable to conclude that the recent spike in Ethereum network activity is being materially driven by address poisoning campaigns.”

Cyvers added that behavioral analysis and statistical correlations “strongly suggest that address poisoning is not a marginal factor, but a significant contributor to the recent rise in Ethereum transaction volume.”

Ethereum retains dominance in tokenized assets

Despite concerns around artificial activity, Ethereum continues to hold a leading position in onchain asset issuance. ARK Invest said on Wednesday that Ethereum “remains the preferred blockchain for on-chain assets,” with the total value of assets on the network now exceeding $400 billion. The firm added that the global market for tokenized assets could grow beyond $11 trillion by 2030.

Stablecoins account for the largest share of onchain assets, with Ethereum hosting about 56% of all stablecoins. When layer-2 networks are included, Ethereum’s share rises to roughly 66% of all tokenized real-world assets, according to data from RWA.xyz.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-mainnet-more-popular-daily-addresses-all-l2

https://x.com/tokenterminal/status/2014347813404963244

https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary

https://app.rwa.xyz/stablecoins