Stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum surged to a new all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2025, underscoring the network’s growing role as a global settlement layer for digital payments.
Data from Token Terminal shows stablecoin transfers on Ethereum exceeded $8 trillion in Q4, nearly doubling from just over $4 trillion in the second quarter, reported CoinTelegraph.
Stablecoin issuance on Ethereum also expanded sharply in 2025, rising about 43% from $127 billion to $181 billion by year-end, based on BlockWorks data.
Commentators have described the trend as evidence that blockchain-based payment infrastructure is already functioning at scale, even before broader institutional integrations or tokenized real-world assets become fully mainstream.
Network activity reaches new highs
The surge in stablecoin usage coincided with record levels of overall network activity.
Etherscan data shows total daily Ethereum transactions peaked at 2.23 million in late December, marking a 48% increase compared with the same period a year earlier.
Monthly active addresses also reached a new high, with Token Terminal reporting 10.4 million active addresses in December.
In addition, the number of unique addresses acting as senders or receivers climbed above one million per day toward the end of the year.
Together, these metrics point to broad-based growth in usage rather than a concentration among a small group of large participants.
Ethereum continues to dominate stablecoin settlement and real-world asset tokenization.
According to RWA.xyz, the network accounts for about 65% of total on-chain real-world asset value, equivalent to roughly $19 billion.
When Layer 2 and other Ethereum Virtual Machine–compatible networks are included, that share rises above 70%.
Ethereum also hosts 57% of all stablecoins issued, ahead of Tron’s 27% share.
Tether’s USDT remains the largest stablecoin, with $187 billion in circulation, more than half of which is issued on Ethereum.
Fusaka upgrade boosts address growth
A notable acceleration in user onboarding followed the deployment of Ethereum’s Fusaka (Fulu-Osaka) upgrade in early December.
Glassnode data shows new address creation has risen 110% over the past month, with the network now adding about 292,000 new addresses per day—the fastest pace since the 2024 bull market, reported Cryptonews.
Fusaka introduced Peer Data Availability Sampling, a technical change aimed at reducing the cost of posting data to Ethereum.
The upgrade is designed to benefit Layer 2 networks by lowering operating costs and improving scalability, making interactions cheaper for users and applications.
Analysts note that reduced friction at the infrastructure level typically encourages higher activity across decentralized finance, gaming, and consumer-facing applications.
The upgrade was executed without network instability, easing concerns among institutional participants about Ethereum’s roadmap and execution risk.
Adoption outlook and market implications
Rising address creation has historically preceded increases in transaction volume and liquidity depth on Ethereum.
Ethereum’s price has begun to reflect improving fundamentals, with ETH recently reclaiming the $3,200 level.
However, on-chain data indicates potential resistance, as a large cohort of investors who bought between July and October 2025 is near break-even and could add selling pressure if prices continue to rise.
As 2026 begins, market participants are watching whether elevated wallet growth translates into sustained transaction demand and Layer 2 usage.
For now, the data points to Ethereum experiencing its strongest onboarding momentum in over a year, driven largely by protocol upgrades and expanding real-world use cases.
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