Ethereum is experiencing a remarkable increase in new wallet creations, with an average of 327,000 wallets made daily over the past week. This surge is attributed to a combination of recent network upgrades, heightened stablecoin activity, and a shift in cryptocurrency sentiment. On Sunday, a record-breaking 393,000 wallets were created in a single day, as reported by Santiment analysts.
The creation of new wallets often indicates the influx of new users, developers, or institutions into the Ethereum ecosystem. The total number of non-empty Ethereum wallets has now reached an all-time high of 172.9 million. Currently, Ethereum's price stands at $3,330, marking a 7.5% increase in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
Santiment analysts attribute part of the wallet creation boom to the Fusaka upgrade implemented in December. This upgrade has made Ethereum more accessible and cost-effective by enhancing on-chain data handling and reducing the costs associated with posting information from Layer 2 networks back to Ethereum. As a result, fees have decreased, making it easier for users to interact with applications and rollups, thereby encouraging more people to open wallets.
In addition to protocol improvements, the overall sentiment in the crypto market has seen a positive shift, with investors and developers reassessing their strategies for the new year. According to Santiment, market sentiment moved from negative to neutral and positive in mid-December, often leading to more retail user participation and new address creation.
There has also been a noticeable interest from new ecosystem entrants exploring decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other applications toward the year's end. A noticeable rise in stablecoin transfers on Ethereum in late 2025 indicates the network's active use for payments and settlements. Such real-world financial activities tend to attract new participants who create wallets for transactions involving stablecoins and other tokens.
Moreover, over half of Ethereum's total supply is currently staked, as observed by on-chain analytics platform Nansen. The ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract holds more than 77 million tokens, which are used as validator stakes to secure the network. Major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase also hold significant amounts of Ether on behalf of their users, with nearly 4 million and 2.3 million tokens, respectively.