Ethereum

Dust

Fusaka

USDC

Coin

Stablecoin-fueled dusting attacks are now estimated to make up 11% of all Ethereum transactions and 26% of active addresses on an average day, after the Fusaka upgrade made transactions cheaper, according to Coin Metrics.&nbsp;
Ethereum is now seeing more than 2 million average daily transactions, spiking to almost 2.9 million in mid-January, along with 1.4 million daily active addresses — a 60% increase over prior averages.
The Fusaka upgrade in December made using the network cheaper and easier by improving onchain data handling, reducing the cost of posting information from layer-2 networks back to Ethereum.
<h2 id="digging-through-the-dust-on-ethereum">Digging through the dust on Ethereum</h2>
Coin Metrics said it <a href="https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/state-of-the-network-issue-349" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">analyzed</a> over 227 million balance updates for USDC (<a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">USDC</a>) and USDt (<a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">USDT</a>) on Ethereum from November 2025 through January 2026.
It found that 43% were involved in transfers of less than $1 and 38% were under a single penny — “amounts with insignificant economic purpose other than wallet seeding.”
<blockquote>
 “The number of addresses holding small ‘dust’ balances, greater than zero but less than 1 native unit, has grown sharply, consistent with millions of wallets receiving tiny poisoning deposits.”
</blockquote>
Pre-Fusaka, stablecoin dust represented roughly 3 to 5% of Ethereum transactions and 15 to 20% of active addresses, it said.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 “Post-Fusaka, these figures jumped to 10-15% of transactions and 25-35% of active addresses on a typical day, a 2-3x increase.”
</blockquote>
However, the remaining 57% of balance updates involved transfers above $1, “suggesting the majority of stablecoin activity remains organic,” Coin Metrics stated.
<figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-02/019c26e8-0ea0-7887-85b3-bbb945ea5c59.png" title="" alt="Stablecoin ‘dust’ txs on Ethereum grow 3x post-Fusaka: Coin Metrics">
 <figcaption>Median Ethereum transaction size fell sharply after Fusaka. Source: <a href="https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/state-of-the-network-issue-349" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Coin Metrics</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<h2 id="users-need-to-be-wary-of-address-poisoning">Users need to be wary of address poisoning</h2>
In January, security researcher Andrey Sergeenkov pointed to a 170% increase in <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/address-poisoning-attack-adding-record-ethereum-network-activity-says-researcher" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">new wallet addresses</a> in the week starting Jan. 12, and also suggested it was linked to a wave of address poisoning attacks taking advantage of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-mainnet-more-popular-daily-addresses-all-l2" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">low gas fees</a>.&nbsp;
These “dusting” attacks typically involve malicious actors sending fractions of a cent worth of a stablecoin from wallet addresses that resemble legitimate ones, duping users into copying the wrong address when making a transaction.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/address-poisoning-attack-adding-record-ethereum-network-activity-says-researcher" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Ethereum activity surge could be linked to dusting attacks: Researcher</a>
Sergeenkov said $740,000 had already been lost to address poisoning attacks. The top attacker sent nearly 3 million dust transfers for just $5,175 in stablecoin costs, according to Coin Metrics.
<h2 id="dust-does-not-represent-genuine-economic-usage">Dust does not represent genuine economic usage</h2>
Coin Metrics reported that approximately 250,000 to 350,000 daily Ethereum addresses are involved in <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-opera-team-up-expand-financial-access-in-emerging-markets" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">stablecoin</a> dust activity, but the majority of network growth has been genuine.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 “The majority of post-Fusaka growth reflects genuine usage, though dust activity is a factor worth noting when interpreting headline metrics.”
</blockquote>
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/eth-whale-panics-india-crypto-tax-asia-express/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">DAT panic dumps 73,000 ETH, India’s crypto tax stays: Asia Express</a>

Stablecoin ‘dust’ txs on Ethereum grow 3x post-Fusaka: Coin Metrics

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