Ethereum's mainnet monthly trading volume hit a record high of 72.8 million transactions, seemingly a strong signal of network activity, but its actual impact on the market shows a complex divergence.

From a fundamental perspective, the growth in trading volume mainly comes from token transfers (accounting for 62%), indicating that demand for Ethereum as a value settlement layer continues to strengthen. However, DeFi transactions only account for 8%, reflecting that on-chain risk appetite remains cautious and a comprehensive ecosystem prosperity has not yet formed. Meanwhile, after the Dencun upgrade, Layer 2 solutions diverted a large number of transactions, and the mainnet gas fees have remained low for a long time, weakening ETH's fee burn mechanism— the busier the network, the less ETH is deflationary, unlike the previous bull market.

In terms of price, ETH is currently around $2,300, nearly halving from the 2025 high. The record-breaking trading volume contrasts sharply with weak prices, indicating the market does not see this as a bullish catalyst. The main reasons are: the rise of Layer 2 makes it difficult for ETH to capture the value of network growth; macro liquidity tightening also suppresses risk asset valuations.

In the short term, this data is more of a technical support and unlikely to independently trigger a market reversal. In the medium to long term, it depends on whether upgrades like Pectra can improve value capture mechanisms; otherwise, the divergence of "high usage, low price" may continue. #Gate广场五月交易分享