Quick Breakdown
- Ethereum mainnet has overtaken all major layer-2s in daily active addresses as gas fees remain low.
- Analysts warn address poisoning and dusting attacks may be inflating activity figures.
- Ethereum continues to lead in stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets despite the noise.
Network activity on Ethereum’s mainnet has overtaken that of major layer-2 scaling networks, as cheaper transaction fees draw users and possibly bad actors back to the base layer.
According to data shared by Token Terminal, Ethereum has seen a clear “return to mainnet,” with daily active addresses now exceeding those on all leading layer-2 blockchains. Activity surged sharply in mid-January, briefly approaching 1 million active addresses per day.
🪃⛓️ Return to Mainnet@ethereum L1 outranks all leading L2s in terms of daily active addresses.
Interesting. pic.twitter.com/Nk7O5adWA5
— Token Terminal 📊 (@tokenterminal) January 22, 2026
On-chain data from Etherscan shows active addresses peaking at roughly 1.3 million on Jan. 16 before cooling to about 945,000 daily addresses, still ahead of networks such as Arbitrum One, Base Chain and OP Mainnet.
Meanwhile, the total value secured across all layer-2 networks stands at around $45 billion, down 17% year-on-year, based on figures from L2Beat.
Low fees drive usage — but not all activity may be legit
Ethereum’s resurgence follows the Fusaka upgrade in December, which significantly lowered gas fees and reduced friction for on-chain activity. However, analysts caution that not all of the recent spike reflects genuine user demand.
Security researcher Andrey Sergeenkov noted that part of the increase may be linked to dusting and address poisoning attacks. These scams involve sending tiny transactions from wallet addresses designed to mimic legitimate ones, increasing the risk that users accidentally copy and reuse malicious addresses.
With transaction costs now far lower, spamming the network has become more economically viable. Blockchain security firm Cyvers said its behavioral and statistical analysis indicates address poisoning is likely a meaningful contributor to the recent jump in Ethereum transaction volume, rather than a minor outlier.
Ethereum still dominates tokenized assets
Despite concerns over spurious activity, Ethereum continues to dominate when it comes to on-chain assets. ARK Invest reported this week that Ethereum-hosted assets now exceed $400 billion in value.
The firm projects that the global tokenized asset market could surpass $11 trillion by 2030. Stablecoins account for the majority of today’s on-chain assets, with Ethereum holding a 56% share of stablecoins and 66% of tokenized real-world assets when layer-2 networks are included, according to data from RWA.xyz.
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