Ethereum Active Addresses Near All-Time High Despite Price Plunge

Ethereum's network activity defies gravity while its token price tanks—a classic crypto divergence that leaves analysts scratching their heads.

The On-Chain Reality Check

Forget the price charts. The real action is happening on-chain, where user engagement metrics scream bullish while market sentiment whispers bear. Active addresses—the lifeblood of any blockchain—are flirting with historic peaks. That's not a typo. It's a signal.

Decoding the Disconnect

What drives this surge? Look beyond speculative trading. DeFi protocols hum with activity, NFT marketplaces see steady flows, and developers continue to build. The network's utility engine is running hot, seemingly indifferent to the emotional rollercoaster of spot markets. It's almost as if the fundamentals... matter.

The Institutional Whisper

While retail panics, sophisticated players watch these metrics like hawks. A high active address count during a downturn suggests entrenched adoption, not fair-weather tourism. It's the kind of data that gets circled in hedge fund memos—right next to the usual cynical jab about how traditional finance still uses fax machines for settlements.

Price is a sentiment snapshot. Network activity is a commitment. One is volatile; the other builds foundations. Ethereum's users are voting with their wallets—and they're not leaving.

Ethereum Network Activity Has Surged Recently

In a new post on X, CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has talked about the latest trend in the 100-day moving average (MA) of the Ethereum Active Addresses. This metric measures the total number of wallets that are coming online on the blockchain every day. An address is said to be “online” when it participates in some kind of transaction activity (whether as a sender or receiver), so the Active Addresses basically tracks the daily amount of wallets making at least one transfer.

When the value of the indicator rises, it means a higher number of users are becoming involved in network activity. Such a trend suggests trading interest in the cryptocurrency is going up. On the other hand, the metric witnessing a decline implies attention may be moving away from the blockchain as a fewer amount of addresses are making transactions.

Now, here is the chart shared by Maartunn that shows the trend in the 100-day MA of the Ethereum Active Addresses over the last decade:

As displayed in the above graph, the 100-day MA Ethereum Active Addresses registered a decline in the last quarter of 2025 as the cryptocurrency’s price went through a bearish shift. Investor excitement tends to die as bullish momentum disappears, so it could be why network activity saw a decrease.

It’s also visible in the chart, however, that since hitting a bottom, the trend has observed a sharp reversal in 2026. The rise in activity initially emerged as the market recovered, but it has continued even as the rally has fizzled out and ETH has crashed alongside the wider sector.

Naturally, since it’s a 100-day MA, some delay is associated with its value, so a drop in activity could very well be reflected later, but it’s nonetheless interesting that a sharp reversal in Active Addresses has even occurred so far. Currently, the indicator’s 100-day MA value is sitting at 469,303, which is notably higher than the cycle high from last year and almost the same level as the all-time high (ATH) set back during the 2021 bull market.

In the last two cycles, the indicator’s cyclical peak followed a major price top, but that doesn’t appear to be the case for the current cycle so far. It now remains to be seen whether the recent trend is a sign that transaction activity is decoupling from price action or if it’s a temporary deviation.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is floating around $2,290, down 21% in the last seven days.