Ethereum's daily trading volume reaches a record high

Ethereum (ETH)'s trading activity has surged.

On the 2nd (Korean time), according to The Block, on December 31 Ethereum's 7-day moving average trading volume recorded 1.87 million transactions, setting an all-time high. This is higher than in 2021, when daily trading volume reached 1.61 million transactions amid strong popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Over the same period, the number of active Ethereum network addresses recorded 728,904, the highest since May 2021.

The network upgrades Ethereum carried out last year were cited as factors behind these results. In fact, Ethereum conducted large-scale network upgrades over Pectra and Fusaka last year. Nick Luck, LVRG research director, explained, "The recent rise was driven by network upgrades, which reduced fees and increased scalability, and by institutional participation inflows through exchange-traded funds (ETF) and real-world asset tokenization (RWA)."

It remains to be seen whether Ethereum can sustain these results into the new year. Ethereum is preparing various major network upgrades for 2026, including Glamsterdam and Hegota.

Justin Danetan, head of research at Arctic Digital, said, "There are strong competitors now, but most stablecoin activity, RWA, yield and staking protocols, and even trading, gaming and NFT activity are still actively taking place on Ethereum or EVM-compatible networks."

As of 8 p.m. that day, Ethereum was trading at 3,049.13 dollars, up 2.47% from the previous day according to CoinMarketCap.