Goldman Sachs: Ethereum Fundamentals Strong, January Average Daily New Address Count Far Exceeds ‘DeFi Summer’

On February 2nd, major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana staged a mild rebound following an earlier dip on Monday. Notably, Goldman Sachs highlighted that despite weak price performance, on-chain activity told a contrasting story—particularly for the Ethereum and Solana networks: - Ethereum’s daily average active addresses, new addresses, and transaction count rose 27.5%, 26.8%, and 36.0% month-over-month (MoM), respectively. - Solana’s daily average active addresses and transaction count increased 24.3% and 8.2% MoM, respectively. Ethereum hit a new all-time high in daily new addresses: an average of 427,000 new addresses were added daily in January, compared to 162,000 daily during the 2020 “DeFi Summer.” Its 7-day moving average of daily active addresses now stands at 1.2 million—another all-time high. Goldman Sachs also flagged that Ethereum’s current market value is now below its realized value (calculated as the total value based on the last on-chain movement price of each token, representing the total cost basis), meaning most ETH holders are currently underwater. Timothy Misir, Research Director at digital asset analytics firm BRN, noted: “For cryptocurrencies, stable ETF fund flows are a key signal to monitor. Without this support, any rebound is likely unsustainable.” (Source: ZeroHedge)