Ethereum Holders Reach 293 Million Despite 30% Drop in Market Value
Ethereum started 2026 with a mixed but telling quarter. Usage has reached new highs, while market value and fee revenue have declined.
According to the first quarter report released by Token Terminal, monthly active users on Ethereum Layer 1 averaged 13.2 million, up 53.5% from the previous quarter and 85.9% from the previous year. Transactions reached 200.4 million, up 38% quarter-over-quarter, while throughput reached 25.78 transactions per second.
What is striking is what happened to the fees. Layer 1 transaction fees fell to $39.9 million, down 47.9% from the previous quarter and 81.9% year-over-year. The result shows that Ethereum processes more activity at a lower total cost.
This is the main tension of the Ethereum Q1 2026 report: the network is evolving, but short-term fee capture is decreasing.
Tokenized assets anchor institutional demand
Ethereum remains the leading tokenized asset chain in terms of market value. Tokenized asset market capitalization on the network averaged $203.4 billion in the first quarter, almost flat compared to the previous quarter but up 42.9% compared to the previous year.
Stablecoins accounted for the majority of that total, $178.9 billion. Attached USDT and Circle’s USDC remained the network’s two largest assets, with Sky’s USDS, Ethena’s USDe, and Paypal’s PYUSD also among the top issuers.
Tokenized funds continued to grow, increasing 4.9% quarter-over-quarter to $19.4 billion. The segment includes products from Sky, Ethena, Blackrock, Wisdomtree, Superstate and Ondo.
Tokenized commodities are the fastest growing category, jumping 60% from the previous quarter to $4.7 billion. The market is largely dominated by tokenized gold products, including Tether Gold and Paxos Gold.
Tokenized stocks remained smaller but gained ground, rising 16.5% to $365.1 million. Ondo Finance leads the category with on-chain exposure to stocks and ETFs.
Ethereum also maintained its lead in several areas Challenge metric. Total ecosystem value locked averaged $316.2 billion, down 11% from Q4 but up 22.8% year-over-year. Active loans totaled $21.8 billion, while ecosystem fees reached $2 billion.
Push scaling weighs on fees
Ethereum’s fully diluted market capitalization averaged $290 billion in the first quarter, down 30.3% from the previous quarter. Trading volume through decentralized exchanges also fell to $134.5 billion, a quarterly decline of 24%.
Yet the network’s user base has continued to grow. ETH the number of holders reached 292.8 million, up 8.1% from the previous quarter and 24.9% from the previous year. THE staking the ratio increased to 31%, showing more ETH committed to network security despite falling prices.
Several improvements helped shape the quarter. The second Blob Parameters Only release of the Fusaka upgrade cycle increased data capacity in January. ERC-8004 went live in February, creating a standard for AI agent identity and reputation. The Ethereum Foundation has also set its priorities for 2026 around scaling, user experience, and layer 1 hardening.
Data shows that Ethereum is deliberately trading short-term fees for cheaper block space and long-term demand. With tokenized finance, stable coinsand the AI agents moving on the chain, the report views Ethereum less as a speculative network and more as a settlement infrastructure for global finance.
