A mix of protocol upgrades, rising stablecoin usage and an improving crypto mood has driven Ether wallet creation to unprecedented highs. Over the past week, an average of around 327,000 new wallets were created each day, with Sunday marking the strongest single day on record at more than 393,000 new addresses, according to Santiment analysts in a Tuesday post on X.

An increase in new wallets is often interpreted as a sign that new users, developers or institutional participants are entering the Ethereum ecosystem. At the same time, the number of non-empty Ether wallets has climbed to 172.9 million, also setting a new all-time high.

Ether is currently trading near $3,330, up roughly 7.5% over the past 24 hours after fluctuating between $3,068 and $3,292 over the last week, based on CoinGecko data.

Network upgrades and sentiment shifts support adoption

Santiment analysts attribute part of the surge in wallet creation to the Fusaka upgrade rolled out in December. According to the firm, the update “made using Ethereum cheaper and easier” by improving onchain data handling and lowering the cost of posting information from layer-2 networks back to the main chain.

“This reduced fees and made interacting with apps and rollups smoother, encouraging many new users to open wallets and start using the network,” the analysts said.

Beyond technical changes, Ethereum appears to be benefiting from a broader shift in market sentiment as the new year began. Santiment noted that holder sentiment moved from negative to neutral and positive in mid-December, “which often coincides with more retail users signing up and creating addresses.” Interest from newcomers exploring decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens and other onchain applications also picked up toward the end of the year.

Stablecoin activity and staking concentration

A rise in stablecoin transfers on Ethereum in late 2025 may have further contributed to the influx of new wallets. Santiment pointed out that the increase suggested the “network was being actively used for payments and settlements.”

“This kind of real financial activity tends to bring in new participants who create wallets to send, receive, or hold stablecoins and other tokens.”

At the same time, more than half of Ether’s total supply is now locked in staking contracts, according to onchain analytics platform Nansen. The ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract alone holds over 77 million ETH, representing validator deposits securing the network. Among centralized platforms, Binance holds close to 4 million Ether on behalf of users, while Coinbase controls roughly 2.3 million ETH in its wallets.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-new-wallet-growth-hits-new-high

https://x.com/santimentfeed/status/2011133508547195166/photo/1

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum