Ethereum Network activity soars, But it’s a scam: understanding the risks

Ethereum network activity is booming, but beware! Learn how "poisoning" attacks threaten your ETH and how to stay safe. Click to protect your crypto!

Written by Charles Ledoux

Translated on January 20, 2026 at 12:49 by Simon Dumoulin

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Mass Adoption? No, a Sophisticated Attack

If you’ve been monitoring on-chain data, you’ve likely noticed a spectacular anomaly: the number of new addresses on Ethereum has surged vertically. According to recent reports, more than 2.7 million new wallets were created in a single week, pushing daily transaction volume to levels close to its ATH.

Record-high Ethereum activity that everyone's celebrating is an address poisoning attack.

– Over $740K already stolen, and growing
– This became possible thanks to the Fusaka upgrade
– This attack is ongoing right nowhttps://t.co/cqoEvqttQd
— Andrey Sergeenkov (@Nikopolos) January 19, 2026

However, this spike in activity doesn’t reflect a massive influx of new retail investors. According to analyses by security researcher Andrey Sergeenkov, this frenzy is largely artificial. Approximately 67% of these new addresses are linked to automated spam campaigns. Attackers are taking advantage of drastically lower gas fees (following recent network upgrades) to flood the blockchain at minimal cost.

Address Poisoning: The Invisible Trap That Drains Your Wallets

The goal of this maneuver isn’t to congest the network, but to trap users via “address poisoning”. The technique is vicious: hackers generate millions of “vanity” addresses that look almost identical to yours (same first and last characters). They then send you zero-value or minimal transactions (called “dust”) so that this fake address appears in your history.

The trap closes when you make a quick transfer. Out of habit, many traders copy the recipient’s address directly from their transaction history without verifying the entire alphanumeric string. Result: funds are sent by mistake to the hacker’s wallet, and the transaction is irreversible on the blockchain. It’s a formidable phishing method that requires no flaw in the Ethereum protocol itself, but exploits human inattention.

Can Ethereum Maintain Its Security Against These Volumes?

This situation raises a critical question for the ecosystem: how can we distinguish genuine organic growth from noise generated by bots? If activity metrics are polluted, the fundamental indicators used by analysts to predict ETH price become less reliable in the short term. Vigilance is therefore essential: always verify every character of your destination addresses.

Ethereum price chart over 6 hours with trendline and order blocks

This situation comes as ETH has broken its bullish trendline, similar to Bitcoin. Now, ETH has a strong chance of falling below $3,000 in the coming days.

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Charles Ledoux

Charles Ledoux is a Bitcoin and blockchain technology specialist. A graduate of the Crypto Academy, he has been a Bitcoin miner for over a year. He has written numerous masterclasses to educate newcomers to the industry and has authored over 2,000 articles on cryptocurrency. Now, he aims to share his passion for crypto through his articles for InvestX.

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