Ethereum hits 1.29M active addresses, but security risks loom – Why?

Exercise on the Ethereum [ETH] community has by no means been larger. In a put up on X, Token Terminal revealed that the each day lively addresses surpassed these of the Layer 2 options.

On the sixteenth of January, the variety of Energetic Addresses was 1.297 million, in accordance with Etherscan information.

Supply: Token Terminal on X

On the time of writing, this determine has dropped to 945k. But, the pattern was unmistakable. The Fusaka improve was accomplished in early December, which reduce community switch charges by almost 6x.

This has seemingly had different penalties, as blockchain safety specialist Andrey Sergeenkov wrote.

Dusting and poisoning on Ethereum

The specialist found that the huge improve within the variety of lively addresses and on-chain transactions was on account of stablecoin transactions. 67% of the brand new addresses acquired lower than 1 greenback as their first stablecoin transaction.

Sergeenkov recognized this as “mud” and in addition discovered sensible contracts that automate the mass distribution of poisoning mud.

That is tackle poisoning. Attackers ship small quantities of tokens, or mud, to wallets utilizing addresses that carefully match their very own. Later, when these customers copy an tackle from their transaction historical past with out carefully checking it, they find yourself sending funds to the attacker.

Even with a low conversion charge of 0.01%, $740k has been stolen from 116 addresses on this manner. It ought to be mentioned that $509k got here from a single sufferer.

Assessing the basics

The Fusaka improve was successful. Low cost transactions ought to be the purpose for any community. This is able to be a key step towards “institutionalization“. AMBCrypto identified that Ethereum was the chief within the real-world asset (RWA) sector, controlling roughly 60% of the market.

Aggressive ETH accumulation from entities corresponding to Bitmine was a constructive signal. In This autumn 2025, Ethereum treasuries acquired 1.2 million ETH. On-chain metrics additionally spotlight purchaser dominance within the spot markets, reflecting absorption as an alternative of distribution.

The type of divergence between value and fundamentals proper now, argued Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, is what marks the underside of bear markets.

Ultimate Ideas

• The record-high each day lively addresses weren’t as hopeful an indication because it seems on first look.
• Regardless of the menace from tackle poisoning, fundamentals, together with on-chain metrics and institutional demand, remained robust.