Stablecoin-related “dusting” activity now accounts for a meaningful share of Ethereum network usage following December’s Fusaka upgrade, according to new data from Coin Metrics.
The analytics firm estimates that dust transactions make up about 11% of all Ethereum transactions and 26% of daily active addresses, a sharp increase from pre-upgrade levels. The rise comes as cheaper fees have made it easier and cheaper for attackers to flood the network with tiny, deceptive transfers.
Ethereum currently processes more than 2 million transactions per day, with activity peaking near 2.9 million in mid-January, alongside roughly 1.4 million daily active addresses, about 60% higher than earlier averages.
Fusaka upgrade fuels spike in dust activity
Coin Metrics analyzed more than 227 million balance updates for USDC and USDT on Ethereum between November 2025 and January 2026. The firm found that 43% of transfers were below $1, while 38% were worth less than one cent, amounts it says have little economic purpose beyond “wallet seeding.”
Before Fusaka, stablecoin dust made up roughly 3% to 5% of Ethereum transactions and 15% to 20% of active addresses. Since the upgrade, those figures have climbed to 10%–15% of transactions and 25%–35% of active addresses, representing a two- to threefold increase, Coin Metrics said.
Address poisoning on the rise, but real usage dominates
Dusting attacks involve sending tiny amounts of crypto from wallet addresses that closely resemble legitimate ones, increasing the chances that users mistakenly copy and reuse the wrong address.
In January, security researcher Andrey Sergeenkov reported a 170% jump in new wallet addresses during the week starting January 12, linking the surge to address poisoning activity enabled by low gas fees. He estimates that about $740,000 has already been lost to such scams.
Coin Metrics noted that one attacker sent nearly 3 million dust transfers, spending just $5,175 in stablecoins.
Despite the noise, the firm stressed that dust does not define Ethereum’s overall growth. Around 250,000 to 350,000 addresses per day are involved in stablecoin dusting, but 57% of balance updates still involve transfers of $1 or more.
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