Ethereum's main network has recently logged record-high activity, but an analysis said serious security problems lie behind it rather than an expanding user base.

The Defiant recently reported that daily active addresses on the Ethereum mainnet hit a record 1.2 million as of Jan. 16, and transactions also reached about 2.8 million. That is higher than during the CryptoKitties craze, DeFi Summer and the 2021 to 2022 NFT boom.

Critics say the figures do not reflect an increase in “real users”. Independent crypto journalist Andrey Serzhenkov (안드레이 세르젠코프) said automated spam contracts inflated activity by sending sub-$1 stablecoins to millions of addresses. The attack induces users to be misled by spoofing addresses, and losses are estimated at about $740,000 so far.

Serzhenkov said the attack was made possible by lower fees after the Pusaka upgrade. Pusaka includes improvements such as raising the block gas limit to boost layer-2 scalability, but some say this has come at the expense of mainnet security.

“Developers sacrificed security for the bait of lower fees even though they expected this outcome,” he said.

Some have pushed back that Serzhenkov's claim is excessive. Gonzalo Magalhaes (곤살로 마갈량이스) of blockchain security firm Immunefi said improvements that enhance user experience can instead lead users to sign transactions without fully understanding them, and suggested broader adoption of more readable naming systems such as ENS.