Even as ETH struggles below $3,000, devs are surging as record contract deployments indicate organic growth driven by rollups, stablecoins, RWAs, and wallets.
Ethereum saw a major rebound in developer activity, despite slowing performance on the price side. The network deployed a record 8.7 million smart contracts in a single quarter, according to a Token Terminal chart shared by Ethereum analyst Joseph Young.
This figure represents an all-time high and beats the previous quarterly record of approximately 6 million contracts set in the second quarter of 2021.
Developer Revival
In his latest article on He attributed the increase primarily to the rapid expansion of rollups and layer 2 networks, as well as increased activity in the issuance of real-world assets (RWA), stablecoins and wallet infrastructure, including intent-based systems.
The data is particularly important given Ethereum’s recent history. Contract deployments saw a sharp decline throughout 2024 and much of 2025. In 2024, quarterly deployments struggled to exceed 1.5 million, while the final quarter of this year saw just over 528,000 new contracts, the latter being the lowest level since 2017.
Even in 2025, deployments fell from almost 6 million in the first quarter to 3.1 million in the third quarter. In this context, the current spike represents a clear reversal, bringing the total number of lifetime contracts deployed on Ethereum to approximately 91.7 million.
A renewed momentum
In a broader sign of renewed network momentum, Ethereum has also seen an increase in on-chain usage alongside falling costs. Data compiled by Etherscan revealed that the mainnet recently processed around 2.2 million transactions in a single day, another new record, while the average transaction fee dropped to around $0.17.
This is in stark contrast to May 2022, where fees regularly exceeded $200 per transaction. Protocol upgrades in 2025, including Pectra and Fusaka, improved validator efficiency and increased gas limit, and helped Ethereum handle higher activity at lower cost.
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Additionally, CryptoQuant found that the total number of transfers jumped to around 1.06 million on December 29, a level not seen since October 2023. The metric became increasingly volatile in the final quarter of 2025 and broke away from the relatively stable activity seen earlier in the year.
The increase in transfers occurred even as the price of ETH remained below its yearly highs.
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