Ethereum on-chain activity explodes: daily active addresses approach 2 million, smart contract calls exceed 40 million for a new high, but ETH drops 30% and transaction fees lose to Tron

CryptoQuant’s March report reveals a new contradiction for Ethereum: on-chain activity indicators have hit all-time highs across the board, yet ETH prices have fallen 30% over the past six months, and fee revenue lags behind Tron and Solana.
(Background: Is Ethereum’s “fundamental collapse” imminent? Stablecoin supply exceeds $165 billion, but network revenue has dropped 44.)
(Additional context: Wall Street is losing interest in Ethereum: Why are fundamentals and ETH prices diverging?)

Table of Contents

Toggle

• On-chain activity: hitting new all-time highs
• But ETH price and fee revenue haven’t kept up
• The root cause: “Capital flows” replacing “usage” as the main driver of valuation

Ethereum is making history — but not the kind you might expect. According to the latest weekly report released by blockchain data analytics platform CryptoQuant on March 10, Ethereum’s daily active addresses, smart contract calls, and token transfers all surged to record highs, with network activity surpassing even the peak of the 2021 bull market.

Meanwhile, ETH prices have been bleeding out over the past six months, and fee revenue has fallen out of the top two among major public chains. This “more usage, more decline” paradox is prompting the market to reconsider: can on-chain activity still reflect ETH’s price?

On-chain activity: hitting new all-time highs

CryptoQuant data shows that in February 2026, several key Ethereum metrics reached new records:

• Daily active addresses approached 2 million, surpassing the peak during the 2021 bull run.
• Smart contract calls exceeded 40 million per day.
• Token transfer volume also hit new highs.

From usage frequency and ecosystem breadth, Ethereum’s current on-chain heat is unprecedented.

Behind this surge is a clear structural support: Ethereum now controls about 52% of the global stablecoin supply, totaling $162 billion; the rapid expansion of DeFi applications and Layer 2 ecosystems has also driven overall interaction volume on the main chain and secondary networks.

But ETH price and fee revenue haven’t kept up

Usage explodes, but capital is flowing out.

ETH has declined about 30% over the past six months, with realized market cap turning negative, indicating a net capital outflow from the Ethereum ecosystem. Even more concerning, inflows into exchanges are higher than Bitcoin’s, often a sign that holders are selling, suggesting ongoing selling pressure.

Fee revenue figures are more straightforward. According to DefiLlama, total transaction fees on Ethereum over the past 30 days are about $10.3 million, ranking third among all chains, but far behind Tron (~$25 million) and Solana (~$20 million). When considering protocol net earnings, Ethereum even drops out of the top five, surpassed by Layer 2 solutions like Base and Polygon.

The root cause: “Capital flows” replacing “usage” as the main driver of valuation

CryptoQuant’s report points directly to the core issue: Ethereum’s old logic is failing.

In past crypto bull markets, “usage ↑ = demand ↑ = price ↑” was almost a law. But now, this chain of causality has broken. Although Ethereum dominates the global stablecoin market, it hasn’t translated this advantage into capturing value for ETH itself: holding USDC or USDT doesn’t require holding ETH, and gas fees for smart contract interactions have been significantly compressed due to Layer 2 scaling.

The report states that the main variable driving ETH’s price has shifted from on-chain usage to capital flows. Who is buying, who is selling — these factors now matter more than actual network activity. This is a crucial cognitive update for investors who have been relying on the “more usage equals higher ETH price” logic.