Stablecoin ‘dust’ txs on Ethereum triple post-Fusaka: Coin Metrics

Coin Metrics, a leading provider of crypto data, has published a report indicating a massive surge in negligible stablecoin transfers—colloquially termed ‘dust’ transactions—on the Ethereum mainnet following the recent ‘Fusaka’ network event. According to the firm’s analysis, the daily volume of these transactions has tripled, fundamentally altering the composition of the network’s transactional load.

Dust transactions are generally defined as transfers below a specific, often nominal, threshold (e.g., less than $1 USD or fractional cents). Historically, due to Ethereum’s highly competitive and often high gas fees, executing such small transfers was economically unviable, leaving vast amounts of fractional stablecoin balances dormant across various decentralized wallets. The tripling effect observed post-Fusaka suggests that substantially lowered transaction costs have prompted users and automated systems to ‘sweep’ these previously uneconomical balances.

The increase is particularly pronounced among the largest stablecoins, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Coin Metrics data shows that while the total transactional *value* has not necessarily spiked proportionally, the sheer *count* of transactions has grown exponentially. This behavioral shift is directly linked to the infrastructure changes implemented during the Fusaka upgrade, which likely included major gas fee optimizations or significant improvements to Layer 2 data availability that indirectly reduces pressure on Layer 1.

While reduced fees and increased network usage are positive indicators of accessibility, the proliferation of dust transactions introduces new dynamics regarding network efficiency and state bloat. Though inexpensive to send individually, every transaction consumes block space and contributes to the cumulative growth of the Ethereum state database. Analysts suggest that the sustainability of this high transaction count must be monitored to assess its long-term implications on the resources required by full node operators to maintain the decentralized ledger.

Source: Stablecoin ‘dust’ txs on Ethereum triple post-Fusaka: Coin Metrics