Active Addresses counts the union of distinct addresses that appeared anywhere in the day’s transaction set, whether on the input side, the output side, or both. An address that sent and received on the same day is still counted once, so the series measures overall transactional reach at the address level.
A rise means activity touched a wider address set. A decline means the footprint narrowed, even if value transfer stayed elevated. It is best read against Sending Addresses and Receiving Addresses to see whether the change came from spend-side breadth, destination breadth, or both.
The main limitation is role aggregation. Active Addresses merges senders and receivers into one union count, so it loses the composition of participation. Addresses are also not entities, which means a similar reading can come from very different underlying user structures.
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