Despite 2022's fierce bear market, which has seen Ether (ETH), last in the mid $1,600s, drop roughly 65% lower compared to its November 2021 record highs in the $4,800s, smart-contract activity on the Ethereum blockchain has remained largely healthy. So-called internal contract calls have stayed close to their record highs in recent quarters at close to 4.0 million, shows a graphic released by crypto data analytics company Glassnode.
In recent quarters, the number of external contract calls has also stayed near to or at record highs, averaging between 600,000 and 800,000 per day. According to Glassnode, Ethereum transactions may contain requests to carry out a smart contract that has been set up on the blockchain. According to Glassnode, "an External Contract Call occurs when a contract is begun by an Externally Owned Address (EOA)... they often reflect people initiating a particular smart contract, such as an ERC-20 token transfer, a DeFi transaction, or an NFT trade.
Glassnode clarifies that "developers of smart contracts can also include contract calls which are initiated from within the executed smart contract... " with regard to internal contract calls. Internal Contract Calls are what provide developers the ability to create and design more complex and modular systems.
Activity for NFT, ERC-20, and stablecoins is still strong.
The non-fungible token (NFT), ERC-20, and stablecoin transaction types continue to experience significant activity, which is largely responsible for the continued strength of smart-contract activity on the Ethereum blockchain. NFT trades made up slightly under 16% of all transactions conducted on Ethereum on Monday, February 27, according to a different image displayed by Glassnode.
Just over 11% of all Ethereum transactions were Stablecoin transactions, while fewer than 10% were ERC-20 token transfers, such as the exchange of tokens like Shiba Inu (SHIB). The percentage of "other" transactions (transfers of ETH) was higher than the percentage of "vanilla transactions" (28.5%). This contrasts with two years ago, when stablecoins and ERC-20 tokens made up roughly 16% and 12% of transactions, respectively, and NFTs only made up about 1.7% of all transactions.
Activity in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) related transactions is one of the major areas of weakness compared to this time two years ago. Almost 12% of all Ethereum transactions occurred in early March 2021, according to DeFi transactions. At the end of February 2023, they only account for about 4%.