Table of Contents
If you’ve been hanging around Crypto Twitter lately, you might’ve heard the whispers: “Ethereum is dying.” “Solana killed the king.” “Nobody uses ETH anymore.” Blah, blah, blah. Let’s cut through the FUD, zoom in on the on-chain reality, and see what the hell is actually happening behind the scenes — because, spoiler alert: Ethereum ain’t dead, it’s just digesting its last bull market steak dinner.
ETH Active Addresses: The Pulse Is Still Beating
Let’s kick things off with the raw number of active addresses on Ethereum. The Glassnode chart shows some juicy insight. From 2016 to 2021, we saw the classic adoption curve: a slow climb, followed by a DeFi and NFT-driven explosion in 2021, and since then… well, let’s say ETH has been on a low-carb diet.
But here’s the kicker: even in mid-2025, active addresses consistently hover between 300K and 500K per day, excluding those occasional wild-ass spikes that scream “bot orgy” or “APE coin nonsense.”
What does it mean? People are still here. They’re just quieter, maybe older, definitely more broke than during the NFT JPEG mania. But the Ethereum network isn’t bleeding users — it’s just not currently printing instant millionaires with monkey cartoons.
Address Momentum: Still Punching Above Its Weight
Zoom into the second chart — the one showing active address momentum with 30-day and 365-day moving averages. This is where it gets spicy.
During each euphoric top — late 2017, mid-2021 — momentum surged way above the yearly average, signaling genuine adoption heat. Fast forward to now, and momentum is simmering just below the 365-day SMA.
Translation? We’re in accumulation mode, not euphoria. This isn’t the time when your Uber driver tells you to buy ETH. This is when the whales are silently reloading and Reddit is suspiciously quiet.
And if you’re one of those technical trader nerds who gets off on divergences, here’s one: momentum is building while price is lagging. We’ve seen this before. You don’t need a PhD to smell a potential breakout brewing.
New ETH Addresses: Fresh Meat Still Arriving
You’d think with all the “ETH is dead” screaming, new users would avoid Ethereum like it’s a Discord pump-and-dump group. But nah. The number of new addresses is still climbing steadily, according to the third chart.
Sure, it’s not 2017-style vertical, and it’s nowhere near NFT-minting bonanza levels. But this isn’t flatlining either. In fact, 2025 shows a healthy rise in new addresses — and that tells us the funnel is still active. People are onboarding. Slowly. Smartly.
Maybe it’s folks getting in for EigenLayer. Maybe they’re prepping for the next meme coin that’ll die in 3 days. Whatever the reason, the Ethereum network still attracts new blood, and that’s the kind of silent bullish signal we like.
ETH ETFs: The Institutional Circus Has Entered Town
Now let’s talk about the new sexy beast in Ethereum’s world — the US spot ETFs.
The fourth chart from Glassnode breaks down ETF flows from major players like Grayscale, BlackRock, Fidelity, and others. Since early May 2025, net flows are climbing sharply, coinciding with ETH’s price breakout toward $3,000.
This is the part where crypto purists cry and TradFi bros high-five. But let’s be real: institutional money is here, and it’s not fucking around. This isn’t retail jumping into SHIB. These are big boys buying exposure and gobbling up ETH like it’s on clearance.
And it matters. ETF inflows don’t just signal demand — they create price pressure. Every share bought = ETH leaving exchanges = supply crunch incoming.
TL;DR for the Degens in the Back
-
Ethereum active usage hasn’t died, it just sobered up.
-
Momentum is returning, and that’s historically been a bullish setup.
-
New addresses are climbing, signaling fresh user onboarding.
-
ETF inflows are real and growing, bringing in institutional demand.
Final Thoughts: Stop Writing ETH’s Obituary
Listen — Ethereum isn’t in peak bull mode, but it also isn’t in a coma. It’s in the middle of its classic “boring before booming” phase. On-chain metrics prove that users are still active, devs are still building, and institutions are finally buying.
So yeah, Solana’s fast and cheap and sexy, and ETH L2s are confusing as hell, but none of that changes the reality that Ethereum remains the most battle-tested, high-value smart contract platform on the damn planet.
If you’re looking for the next hype cycle, the seeds are already planted. You just have to be smart enough to read the charts before everyone else remembers how to spell MetaMask.
