During macro FUD, high conviction is usually a bullish sign.
For Ethereum (ETH), however, it’s not just about external market noise. By the end of February, Vitalik Buterin had sold over 17,000 ETH on the open market, as ETH saw a nearly 20% decline for the month.
Yet CryptoQuant shows the network is thriving: active addresses and smart contracts are all rising, some even above 2021 levels. The gap between on-chain growth and prices? Analysts point to capital outflows from ETFs as the reason.
From a technical perspective, ETF flows tend to follow market noise.
Simply put, institutional capital often moves first when volatility hits, leaving retail investors and long-term holders to weather the storm. A clear example: the current crisis in the Middle East. Over the past three days alone, Ethereum ETFs have lost approximately $230 million.
Overall, Ethereum is facing not one, but three bearish signals at once: Vitalik sales, macro volatility, and ETF outflows. And yet, as the chart shows, the number of addresses stacking ETH is growing significantly.
Naturally, the question is: what are these addresses actually betting on?
Ethereum adoption accelerates as USDC activity fuels AI buzz
The ETH stablecoin landscape is evolving.
According to DeFiLlama, the supply of USDC on the network jumped 11.3% this month, while USDT fell 2.6%. Notably, this caused USDT’s dominance to drop to 48%, while USDC climbed to 33%, highlighting a clear reshuffling of stablecoin preferences on the network.
The effects are visible on the channel. Token Terminal reports that USDC usage on Ethereum has reached an all-time high, with monthly transfer volume exceeding $1.7 trillion, a staggering +250% year-over-year growth.
And this is not a random incident.
Circle is making serious progress in the AI agent space. According to Blockbeats, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, recently said that 99% of AI agent payments use USDC, showing how central the stablecoin is becoming in this rapidly growing sector.
Against this backdrop, Ethereum’s strong on-chain fundamentals stand out, signaling a market that is breaking away from the broader macroeconomic noise.
With USDC usage increasing, trust in the network is growing, indicating that investors are doubling down on the AI hype.
Final summary
- Despite Vitalik’s sell-off, macroeconomic volatility, and ETF outflows, Ethereum’s on-chain indicators are rising, showing that investors continue to accumulate.
- Ethereum stablecoin activity is increasing, boosting trust in the network.
