Ethereum Activity Surges but Poising Attacks Cast Doubt on Legitimacy

Ethereum's daily active addresses have surged to over 1 million, surpassing popular scaling networks like Arbitrum, Base, and OP Mainnet.

This rebound follows December's Fusaka upgrade, which reduced transaction fees and made Ethereum a more attractive option for users.

However, security researchers warn that the increase in activity may be due to address poisoning attacks rather than genuine user demand. These attacks involve sending small 'dust' transfers to millions of wallets, making it appear as though addresses are active when they're not.

According to Andrey Sergeenkov, a security researcher, the number of new Ethereum addresses jumped 170% above normal levels during the peak week of Jan. 12, with two-thirds of those addresses receiving dust as their first stablecoin transaction.