OP Mainnet is changing its shape faster than it is shrinking. The network held less value in mid-November than a month earlier, yet far more addresses used it, and the money that left did not leave evenly. That split, thinner deposits and broader use, matters more than any single total, because it suggests a network moving toward many small participants rather than a few large deposits.
DefiLlama put the value locked on OP Mainnet at $401.1 million on 13 November 2026, and growthepie, which measures activity from its own on-chain records, put seven-day average use to 11 November 2026 at 1,536,906 daily transactions and 230,112 daily active addresses. Read together, the two records describe the same weeks from different angles: one tracks money parked in decentralised finance, the other tracks how often the network was used and by how many addresses. The gap between them is the story.
A monthly fall that leaves the year higher
The fall over the month is clear in DefiLlama's figures. Locked value stood at $401.1 million on 13 November 2026, against $444.0 million on 14 October 2026, a fall of 9.7%. That is a material monthly drop, not a rounding wobble, and it came after a strong autumn. Yet the same figure looked very different against the summer and against a year earlier. It was up 27.9% from $313.7 million on 15 August 2026, and up 28.1% from $313.2 million on 13 November 2025. In other words, the network lost ground in four weeks while keeping most of the ground it had gained since the summer.
The longer view is less forgiving. DefiLlama's highest reading was $1.15 billion on 11 August 2022, and the figure on 13 November 2026 was 65.0% below it. That gap has survived the summer recovery and the autumn rise, which means the recent gains repaired only part of the distance from the early peak. A reader who judges the network only by its latest month will miss that scale, and a reader who judges it only by the peak will miss the recovery since August.
The first day of each month tells the same story in smaller steps. Locked value was $285.3 million on 1 December 2025 and $285.7 million on 1 January 2026, then $248.3 million on 1 February 2026, $198.5 million on 1 March 2026 and $190.7 million on 1 April 2026. It jumped to $352.7 million on 1 May 2026, eased to $321.5 million on 1 June 2026 and $269.7 million on 1 July 2026, then rose to $298.9 million on 1 August 2026, $425.3 million on 1 September 2026 and $483.4 million on 1 October 2026, before falling back to $414.1 million on 1 November 2026. The path was not a steady climb: a spring slide, a sharp May recovery, a summer dip and an autumn surge came before the November retreat.
Ether fell further, so price alone is not the whole fall
Ether, the network's main asset, fell faster than locked value over the same month. DefiLlama put ether at $2,017 on 13 November 2026, against $2,497 on 14 October 2026, a fall of 19.2%. Locked value fell by 9.7% over that period, roughly half the pace of ether in percentage terms. That difference matters, because locked value moves with token prices as well as with money moving in and out. The gap shows the two series did not move together, even in a month when both fell.
The three-month comparison points the same way, in reverse. Ether was $1,880 on 15 August 2026, and the latest price of $2,017 was up 7.3% from that level. Locked value rose 27.9% over the same stretch, from $313.7 million to $401.1 million. In both windows, locked value moved further in the direction of its own change than ether did: it fell less when ether fell, and rose more when ether rose. That pattern is consistent with deposits and withdrawals adding to the price effect, though the two figures alone cannot separate how much came from price and how much came from money entering or leaving.
Stablecoins fell hardest, and price cannot explain it
Stablecoins tell a sharper story, because their value is meant to stay near a dollar. Growthepie put the stablecoin total on OP Mainnet at $393.6 million on 11 November 2026, against $655.6 million on 12 October 2026, a fall of 40.0%. That is a far larger monthly fall than the 9.7% fall in locked value, and it happened in a measure that is not pushed around by the ether price. When a dollar-pegged total falls that far in a month, the change reflects supply leaving the network or shrinking there, not a market price moving the total down.
Over three months the picture is calmer, which makes the monthly drop stand out more. The stablecoin total was $424.0 million on 14 August 2026, and the latest figure of $393.6 million was down 7.2% from that level. Most of the recent damage, in percentage terms, therefore arrived between 12 October 2026 and 11 November 2026, after a period in which the total had first risen and then fallen back close to its August level. Locked value, by contrast, ended the same three months up 27.9%. The two measures of money on the network moved apart: one rose over the summer and autumn, the other ended almost where it began, after a steep fall in the final month.
Transactions eased while the address count jumped
Use of the network eased, even as the address count surged. Growthepie's seven-day averages to 11 November 2026 put daily transactions at 1,536,906, against 1,595,275 thirty days earlier, a fall of 3.7%. The longer comparison is steeper: daily transactions were 2,055,587 in the week to 20 August 2026, and the latest average was down 25.2% from that level. Transactions have therefore fallen on both horizons, modestly over the past month and much more sharply since August, while locked value over the same three months rose.
Active addresses moved in the opposite direction, and by an extraordinary amount. Growthepie put daily active addresses at 230,112 in the seven days to 11 November 2026, against 13,564 thirty days earlier, a rise of 1596.5%. Against 14,833 in the week to 20 August 2026, the rise was 1451.3%. The address count did not creep up: it multiplied many times over in a month when transactions fell. That contrast is the central puzzle in the activity figures, because a network with far more active addresses would ordinarily be expected to carry more transactions, not fewer.
Fees paid by users stayed small in dollar terms and moved unevenly. Daily fees averaged $2,208 in the seven days to 11 November 2026, against $2,567 thirty days earlier, down 14.0%, and against $1,810 in the week to 20 August 2026, up 22.0%. Fees therefore fell over the month while transactions fell only slightly, and rose over three months while transactions fell sharply. The address figures need a further caution: one address is not one person, and a single person can use many addresses. A surge in addresses, on its own, is not proof of a surge in people.
What the split means, and what it leaves open
The most defensible reading of these figures together is that OP Mainnet drew far more active addresses while carrying fewer transactions and holding less locked value than a month earlier. Locked value fell in the month but stayed well above its August and year-ago levels; stablecoins fell far more sharply in the month; transactions eased; fees stayed low. That combination fits a network whose use is spreading out rather than deepening, with smaller or shorter-lived activity replacing larger deposits. The competing reading is simpler: the same people may be using more addresses, so the surge counts addresses, not new users.
These limits belong to the measures themselves. DefiLlama counts only the protocols it tracks, so its locked value leaves out anything outside that set, and it moves with token prices as well as with deposits and withdrawals. Growthepie counts activity and stablecoin supply on the network itself, using seven-day averages to 11 November 2026 and publishing the last 90 days, so its figures describe recent use rather than a full history. Together the two sources cover money held and activity on the network, but neither one, on its own, shows who the users are, why they moved money, or whether the address surge will last.
The next monthly reading will test which reading holds. If active addresses stay near 230,112 while transactions stay near 1,536,906 and stablecoins stay near $393.6 million, the picture of a broader, lighter network will have survived its first check. If addresses fall back toward 13,564 while transactions and fees change little, the surge will look like a brief episode rather than a new shape for the network. Either way, November has already changed the question: it is no longer whether OP Mainnet is growing or shrinking, but what kind of use its growth is made of.
Not investment advice.
Source: DefiLlama, growthepie, OP Mainnet fundamentals · Date: