Ethereum tests $3,350 amid a record influx of new users

The Ethereum network has registered a record surge in user activity. Analysts at Santiment said that, as price action has revived, the number of new wallets has reached an all-time high.

📈 BREAKING: Ethereum’s new wallet growth has reached new all-time high levels. Over the past week, crypto’s #2 market cap has seen an average of 327.1K new $ETH wallets created per day, including a 393.6K day Sunday (the highest ever).

📊 There can be several reasons attributed… pic.twitter.com/zD1YcOV3wO

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 13, 2026

Over the past week, an average of 327,100 new addresses were created daily. The peak came on January 11—393,600 new wallets. The total number of addresses with a nonzero balance reached 172.9 million.

Santiment highlighted several drivers of growth:

• Fusaka. An upgrade activated in early December 2025, it reduced fees and improved processing of data from layer-2 networks;
• Stablecoins. In the fourth quarter of 2025, stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum reached $8 trillion;
• Shift in sentiment. Indicators point to a move from negative to neutral-to-positive. Retail investors are returning to DeFi, NFT and gaming.

The influx of users is accompanied by falling gas costs. Against this backdrop, on January 13 the network processed a record 2.1 million transactions.

Average fees were just $0.15. A year ago a transaction cost about $11, and at the peaks of 2021–2022 gas charges exceeded $200.

The positive on-chain dynamics fed through to prices: ether tested $3,350. At the time of writing the asset trades at $3,340 (+6.9%).

Large players add to positions

Institutional investors are active as well. BitMine added another 186,560 ETH (~$625 million) to staking.

Tom Lee(@fundstrat)’s #Bitmine staked another 186,560 $ETH($624.8M) in the past 8 hours.

In total, #Bitmine has now staked 1,530,784 $ETH($5.13B).https://t.co/P684j5YQaG pic.twitter.com/cgeVvUPy7d

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 14, 2026

The firm now has 1.53 million locked ETH worth about $5.13 billion—4% of all coins locked in the Beacon Chain. In total, the company holds more than 4.07 million ETH.

BitMine chairman Tom Lee called the end of 2025 a “mini crypto winter” and forecast a market recovery in 2026.

Earlier, MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe said that the theory of Ethereum’s “death” is unfounded.