Despite the impressive rise in cryptocurrency prices in 2024, on-chain activity remained stagnant across most chains. However, one bright spot was the dramatic increase in user growth seen by Base, a layer-2 network built by Coinbase. According to a report by Flipside, Base’s monthly acquired users skyrocketed by 56 times this year, reaching a record high of 19.4 million in October.
This growth can be attributed to several factors, including increased institutional adoption and the listing of several new cryptocurrencies by leading asset manager Grayscale. Additionally, the launch of Base’s own decentralized exchange (DEX) may have played a role in attracting new users to the network.
Interestingly, while Base saw tremendous growth in both acquired and super users (those executing over 100 DeFi transactions), Ethereum also saw impressive growth in its own user activity. The second-largest crypto network averaged 1.56 million acquired users per month, surpassing its layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism.
Furthermore, Ethereum had an astounding 10.9 million DeFi-related super users, crushing Arbitrum and Optimism’s respective numbers. On the other hand, Bitcoin’s user growth barely registered a bump despite its price reaching all-time highs and the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US. The network saw a 19.2% increase in acquired users during Bitcoin’s major rally in March, but this number dropped by 28.5% during the post-election rally in November.
This suggests that much of Bitcoin’s growth may have been driven by speculative activity rather than new user onboarding. Overall, it seems that both Base and Ethereum are leading the charge when it comes to user growth and adoption. While Bitcoin remains dominant in terms of market capitalization, its lackluster user growth could indicate that it needs to focus more on attracting new users if it wants to remain competitive in the long run.
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