Ethereum Anomaly: Full Activity, Dirt-Cheap Fees—What's the Catch Behind It?
Ethereum is experiencing a paradoxical surge in network activity, with daily transactions reaching a record 2.9 million and active addresses doubling, all while maintaining extremely low transaction fees of $0.1-$0.2. This follows major network upgrades like Pectra, Fusaka, and a subsequent blob parameter fork, which significantly increased data capacity and reduced costs.
However, security researchers warn this record activity is not driven by organic growth but is largely fueled by industrial-scale "address poisoning" scams. Attackers exploit the low fees to send millions of micro-transactions (dusting) to new wallets, creating fake addresses that mimic a victim's real one in their transaction history. The goal is to trick users into accidentally sending funds to the fraudulent address.
Analysis shows that 67% of new addresses received their first transaction as a sub-$1 stablecoin transfer from these poisoning contracts. Despite a success rate of only about 0.01%, the scheme is economically viable due to the low cost of transactions, with identified victims losing around $740,000. This artificial activity inflates on-chain metrics, masking a darker reality where low fees enable large-scale fraud disguised as legitimate adoption.
比推01/22 14:55
