Pengguna Exodus Meninggalkan Platform Smart Contract—Dapatkah Upgrade Pectra Ethereum Mengubah Keadaan?

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There has been a sharp decline in daily active addresses across Smart Contract Platforms (SCPs) in recent months, raising concerns among investors and developers.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade could be a turning point, with crypto analyst Jamie Coutts calling the current state of affairs an ecosystem cleanup.

SCPs See Sharp Drop in Active Users

Jamie Coutts, who built Bloomberg Intelligence’s crypto research product, said this is the worst drop ever recorded in the history of SCPs.

He also noted that it is far worse than the 2022-2023 bear market, with daily active addresses dropping 40.5% in just five months.

“This is the largest drop in usage in the history of SCPs,” Coutts wrote.

Coutts’ analysis provides a deeper look at the broader crypto ecosystem, which has simultaneously seen an increase in global liquidity and an all-time high in stablecoin market caps.

While the sector appears to be in turmoil, Coutts said the decline does not indicate the death of smart contract platforms. Rather, it is a necessary cleanup of the ecosystem. 

The analyst attributes the decline in daily active addresses to several key factors, including increased artificial activity. 

“Much of the growth in the previous cycle was artificial: Increased usage by bots and Sybil farms, incentive programs created temporary traction without stickiness. This reversal reflects the cleanup of fake activity, not the death of the sector,” Coutts explained. 

Increased bots and Sybil attacks, where bad actors create multiple fake identities to manipulate platform usage metrics, have artificially inflated activity numbers across smart contract platforms. 

Now that these fake users have been weeded out, the real growth potential of SCPs is becoming clearer. 

Additionally, this trend suggests that SCPs with weak application ecosystems or limited use cases will face significant valuation declines. This is especially true without stablecoin integrations or real-world asset (RWA) applications. 

Coutts notes that many SCP tokens are at risk of declining valuations if their platforms do not offer high throughput, low fees, and real settlement capabilities.

The market will likely reward mature platforms that are able to support real economic activity. This includes stablecoin transactions, payments, and native AI applications.

“…going forward, value will be concentrated in platforms that enable high throughput, low fees, real settlement, and agent automation,” he added.

Ethereum Staking Surge After Pectra

Interestingly, this prediction aligns with Ethereum’s recent Pectra upgrade, which went live on May 7, 2025.

The Pectra upgrade introduced key features that could help Ethereum, the largest smart contract platform, stay ahead in the space. Specifically, the upgrade improved Ethereum’s staking model and validator operations.

CryptoQuant recently showed a significant spike in ETH staking around the news of the Pectra Upgrade. Specifically, prior to the Pectra upgrade news, ETH staking saw a net outflow of around 1.02 million ETH, reflecting uncertainty.

However, following the news, staking recovered with an inflow of 627,000 ETH, signaling renewed market confidence in the Ethereum staking ecosystem.

“Before Pectra News (Nov 16 – Feb 15): ETH staked dropped from ≈34.88M ​​to 33.86M ETH, net outflows ~1.02M ETH. This period reflects market uncertainty and staking position reversals ahead of the upgrade. After Pectra News (Feb 16 – May 16): Total ETH staked increased from 33.78M to 34.41M ETH — net inflows ~627K ETH. Shows renewed confidence in staking after the upgrade,” wrote CryptoQuant analyst Kripto Mevsimi.

In a similar vein, Bohdan Opryshko, co-founder and COO at Everstake, told BeInCrypto that the Pectra upgrade might be Ethereum’s most institutional-friendly update yet. He said the upgrade is the clearest signal yet that Ethereum is ready for conservative capital.

“For the first time, institutions can stake at scale with operational clarity and reduced complexity. This is a green light for conservative capital to engage in native Ethereum staking,” Opryshko told BeInCrypto.

Furthermore, Pectra’s introduction of smart accounts allows Ethereum wallets to run smart contract logic. This could encourage stablecoin integration.

At the same time, it could improve scalability. This would make Ethereum more suitable for handling real-world economic activity such as payments and financial transactions.

However, Coutts highlighted the divergence between price action and network activity, a common phenomenon in the crypto space. While the market is stable, activity on many SCPs remains stagnant.

Coutts notes that this divergence will not last long. More sophisticated capital will increasingly flow to platforms that anchor real-world economic behavior, particularly through stablecoin flows and payments.

“Markets may be stable, but activity is not,” Coutts said. “More sophisticated capital will increasingly shift to chains that anchor real-world economic behavior, particularly through stablecoin flows, payments, and native AI applications.”

Ultimately, Coutts predicts that the liquidity-driven rally will return, driven by the significant liquidity expected to enter the system in the coming months.

However, he cautions that value will likely accumulate in the subset of SCPs that can provide real value through real-world applications and stablecoin integrations. This sentiment aligns with the structural upgrades brought about by Ethereum’s Pectra fork.

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