Ethereum Network Activity Hits Record Highs, But Price and Fees Under Pressure

Despite the Ethereum network experiencing unprecedented activity – with an average of 327,000 new wallet addresses created daily, marking a decade high, and both smart contract executions and transaction volumes reaching historical peaks – the price of its native token, ETH, has fallen by approximately 30% in the past six months. Furthermore, network fee revenue has been surpassed by multiple Layer-2 solutions and competing chains.

In the past month, the Ethereum mainnet generated only $1.22 million in protocol revenue, ranking fifth. In contrast, Base, the Layer-2 network operated by Coinbase, generated a revenue of $3.66 million during the same period, nearly three times that of the mainnet. In 2025, Base is projected to account for 60% of the total Layer-2 fee revenue, reaching $75 million, far exceeding the combined revenue of Arbitrum and Optimism. Simultaneously, the average Gas fee on the Ethereum mainnet has dropped to $0.15 to $0.17, the cheapest level in modern history, a stark contrast to the congestion peak in May 2022 when a single transaction exceeded $200.

This phenomenon reveals a structural paradox: as the world's most widely used smart contract platform, Ethereum's economic value is largely flowing to the Layer-2 ecosystem, rather than being returned to ETH holders or the mainnet's burn mechanism. Data shows that the historically strong correlation between on-chain activity and ETH price has been clearly broken. Currently, a large number of transactions are accompanied by a sluggish coin price, indicating that market pricing no longer depends on usage but is dominated by capital flows. CryptoQuant analysis points out that the year-on-year change in Ethereum's realized market capitalization has turned negative, indicating a continuous outflow of funds. Compared to Bitcoin, ETH is being transferred to exchanges at a faster rate, reflecting stronger selling pressure. In addition, although stablecoins have a large trading volume on Ethereum, this has not translated into substantial fee revenue. Tron, with a large number of USDT transfers in Asia, has more than doubled Ethereum's monthly revenue, but only carries a small portion of its total value locked. Analysts point out that if ETH hopes to regain its link with network fundamentals, the key is to stably hold the $2200 to $2400 range, accompanied by sustained buying support. Currently, Ethereum remains deeply mired in paradox – it is the most active blockchain, but also the least profitable mainnet.