Daily active addresses on Ethereum approached 2 million in February 2026, a figure that surpassed the peaks of the 2021 bull market. Smart contract calls topped 40 million per day, and token transfers set fresh all-time highs. Yet the ETH price is down by 30% over the last six months as capital has been flowing out of the market.
So here is the question every Ethereum holder is sitting with right now: if the network has never been busier, why is the price acting like nobody cares?
why scaling ethereum mainnet is the right direction:
active addresses on ethereum is at an all-time high. pic.twitter.com/yjd433G0xW
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) February 5, 2026
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Ethereum Network Activity: The Data
The on-chain picture, taken at face value, looks extraordinary. A weekly report from analytics firm CryptoQuant published March 10 found that daily active addresses (unique wallet addresses that sent or received a transaction within a 24-hour window) surpassed 700,000 in February 2026. It genuinely exceeds what Ethereum saw during the height of the 2021 DeFi and NFT hype.
Santiment data adds further texture. The 30-day moving average of daily active addresses sits at 837,200: up 82% from five years ago and over 1,100% from a decade ago. New wallet creation is averaging 284,800 per day, up 64% from five years prior.
Combined Layer 1 and Layer 2 throughput has also crossed 100 Mgas/s (megagas per second), led by Base at 30.54 Mgas/s, Polygon PoS up 189% in six months, and fast-growing chains like Scroll and Unichain.
Over 37.25 million ETH is currently staked, reducing circulating supply while strengthening network security. Beneath the surface, the infrastructure story has never looked stronger.
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Why Is ETH Price Lagging Despite Record Usage?
In previous cycles, particularly 2018 and 2021, rising on-chain activity and prices went hand in hand. However, CryptoQuant’s latest analysis shows this relationship has broken down. High activity is now associated with lower prices, meaning incremental usage growth no longer explains ETH’s valuation.
The fee picture also tells a similar story. DefiLlama data shows Ethereum generated about $11 million in transaction fees over the past 30 days, ranking third behind Tron and Solana. On protocol revenue, Ethereum ranked fifth at $1.22 million, trailing Tron, Polygon, Base, and Solana. Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 built by Coinbase, generated about three times Ethereum’s base-layer protocol revenue over the same period.
This structural tension is the root cause of the paradox. Ethereum’s scaling upgrades, especially EIP-4844 introduced in early 2024, reduced transaction costs on Layer 2 networks. The goal was cheaper transactions for users, but the side effect is a loss of fee revenue.
CryptoQuant’s exchange flow data supports the selling pressure view: Ethereum is trading faster than Bitcoin, which aligns with increased distribution. Ethereum’s one-year realised capitalisation, a measure of the total value of all ETH at the last price, has turned negative, indicating net capital outflows. Price follows sentiment in the short term. And right now, sentiment is not following the fundamentals. You can explore the exact paradox of institutional buying versus price stagnation in more depth if you want the fuller picture.
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ETH Price Watch: The Levels That Will Decide What Comes Next
We cannot ignore the risks on the chart. ETH has failed to reclaim key resistance levels in recent weeks, and the broader altcoin market remains under pressure from elevated Bitcoin dominance. If selling pressure continues and ETH loses near-term support around the $1,750 range, the next meaningful floor becomes a genuine question and not a technicality.
On the upside, a reclaim of the $2,400–$2,500 zone with strong volume would represent the first credible signal that sentiment is shifting.
Two scenarios are in play. Either capital rotation returns to ETH as Bitcoin dominance peaks and investors search for higher-beta opportunities, or the fee revenue compression story continues to weigh on sentiment, keeping ETH range-bound while on-chain activity climbs. The latest read on Ethereum’s network upgrades and price trajectory lays out what the 2026 roadmap means for either scenario.
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