Ethereum crosses a new milestone with over 2.2 million transfers

At the end of 2025, Ethereum didn’t just finish the year well. It hit the accelerator, then it broke the crypto meter. On December 29, 2025, the network validated 2.23 million transactions in a single day. It is indeed a historic peak supported by numbers.

An end of year in hot crypto chain mode

For Tom Lee, tokenization marks a turning point for finance on the blockchain. His bet on an ETH at 62,000 dollars rests on a simple idea: more tokenized assets means more flows, thus more real use on Ethereum. And precisely, the on-chain data already speaks loudly: 2.23 million transactions on December 29, 2.12 million on the 30th, 2.13 million on the 31st, then nearly 1.98 million on January 2. Four very close days, which look less like a statistical accident than a network gaining momentum.

That’s where the reading becomes interesting. An extraordinary day might come from a one-off event, a wave of transfers linked to a platform, or a technical movement. But when several sessions align just shy of the record, it’s no longer an exception. It’s a rhythm.

The gap with the previous peak is clear. The day of January 14, 2024, long number one, is relegated lower in the ranking. In other words, the end of 2025 has not only beaten Ethereum’s history, it has moved it.

Why it runs so fast without a price explosion

Onchain activity is heating up, but ETH’s price isn’t sprinting at the same pace. That doesn’t mean the market “doesn’t understand”. It rather suggests that usage is not reduced to momentary speculation.

When transaction volumes rise without obvious euphoria, several possible drivers come to mind. We particularly think of stablecoin movements, arbitrages, portfolio rebalances, and operations linked to applications.

But we must also accept another reality. Part of this flow can be mechanical. It may involve bots, automations, micro-transfers, farming or distributions. In Crypto, noise is part of the signal. The question is not to deny this noise, but to know whether it dominates or accompanies a more “real” demand.

Ethereum remains a highway. We can criticize its fees, its complexity, its compromises. But when the network aligns multiple days close to two million transactions, it imposes a simple fact. There are many people on the road.

Moreover, the busier the network, the more the question of costs and fluidity returns to the center. If fees remain reasonable, the increase in activity looks like validation. But if fees soar, the network switches back to stress test mode, and alternatives can only reach out, including when actors like Arthur Hayes reduce their exposure to ETH and reroute millions towards DeFi.