According to Token Terminal, developers deployed 8.7 million new smart contracts, the highest quarterly total in the network’s history. This marks a strong recovery after weaker activity in the previous two quarters.
The growth was driven by stable coin usage, real-world asset tokenization, and infrastructure development. Contract deployment often acts as a leading indicator, appearing before increases in users, transactions, and network fees.
$ETH is increasingly positioning itself as a global settlement layer for on-chain finance.
