Original author: flipside
Original translation: TechFlow
1. Introduction
On-chain user trends towards 2025
2024 is a turning point for Web3 user growth, with new users and super users hitting all-time highs on major public chains. Public chains like Base redefine what exponential growth is, while Ethereum and its L2 solutions demonstrate how a well-established ecosystem can adapt to evolving user needs.
However, digging deeper into the data reveals that not all growth is equal — highlighting the importance of focusing not just on quantity but also quality when evaluating on-chain activity.
To this end, this report is based on Flipside’s real-time on-chain crypto user data for 2024. In addition to traditional performance indicators, it also evaluates this year’s cryptocurrency activity through more actionable multivariate indicators, providing a new way to assess the health of on-chain users in 2025.
Brief summary
Behind the news of user growth lies a deeper challenge: how to build ecosystems that create meaningful, lasting engagement, not just short-lived speculative play.
In short, most blockchains are still in their infancy when it comes to converting average users into high-value contributors.
Get user information:
Base: In October 2024, it set a record of 19.4 million newly acquired users, of which Base contributed 13.7 million users - almost 8 times that of the second-place Polygon.
BTC: The price of BTC reached an all-time high of over $100,000, and the number of acquired users of Bitcoin only increased by an average of 935,900 per month, indicating widespread speculation among existing users rather than significant new user admissions.
ETH: The average monthly user acquisition reached 1.56 million, surpassing Arbitrum and Optimism, and the month-on-month user growth in March reached 33.4%. It is worth noting that Arbitrum hit an outstanding peak of 3.3 million monthly users in May.
Super user situation:
Base: Attracted 15.1 million wallets that have performed 100+ DeFi transactions, 38.4% more than the second-ranked Ethereum’s 10.7 million super users.
ETH: 10.9 million DeFi-related super users exceed the total of Arbitrum and Optimism (6.2 million and 1.8 million, respectively), highlighting Ethereum’s advantages in liquidity and convenience.
Polygon: Added 1.5 million new super users in 2024 and recorded 867.7 million super user transactions this year, highlighting its success in application areas beyond DeFi.
DEX usage:
Uniswap: Expanded its dominance on major public chains, capturing 91.3% of new user DEX activity on Base and growing its market share on Ethereum by 27.72% compared to 2023.
Despite Uniswap’s growth, Trader Joe’s maintained its lead on Avalanche with 61.1% market share, up 6.1% from 2023.
Unlike 2023, in 2024 the top three DEX rankings for user and super-user acquisition across all observed public chains now remain consistent.
2. Newly acquired users
The number of newly acquired users reached a monthly peak of 19.4 million in October 2024.
On-chain user growth this year was led by Base, which contributed 13.7 million new users in the month - almost 8 times that of second-place Polygon. Overall, it was an impressive year for the entire on-chain user growth industry. The number of acquired users continued to rise throughout 2024, with only a small pullback in August.
Note: An acquiring user is defined as a user who has made at least 2 transactions on a chain, with the second transaction occurring in 2024.
This continued growth may be influenced by increased institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by the slew of BTC and ETH ETFs announced earlier this year.
Other exciting developments in the first half of 2024 may also have fueled this optimism, such as Grayscale’s inclusion of multiple new cryptocurrencies as assets under consideration and the Federal Reserve’s 50 basis point cut in U.S. interest rates during the September 2024 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting — the first rate cut in four years.
Base's Astonishing Growth
Base got off to a slow start in 2024, but has seen its monthly new user acquisitions explode 56-fold since January.
Base only had 244,700 acquired users in January, but experienced steady and significant growth throughout the year. By the time it reached its peak in November, the chain's monthly number of acquired users had increased 56 times compared to January, with an average of 4.7 million new acquired users per month during 2024.
The chain’s performance has benefited greatly from Coinbase’s massive user base, which collectively manages around $130 billion in assets. Popular DeFi protocols like Aerodrome may have also attracted users from other EVM chains, while Base has successfully driven user interest through hot areas such as memecoin trading and on-chain AI (new initiatives such as Based Agents).
Bitcoin Performance
Despite record highs in BTC prices, it has not attracted a large number of new users this year.
Bitcoin’s new user acquisitions remained relatively flat in 2024, despite significant appreciation in BTC value. Overall, Bitcoin’s average monthly user acquisition growth this year was 935,900, ranking third from the bottom among the seven traditional public chains observed in this report.
This suggests that Bitcoin’s price appreciation is primarily driven by enthusiasm and speculation from its existing user base, while BTC price growth has had mixed results in attracting new users.
BTC’s first major price surge in March 2024 coincided with a 19.2% month-over-month increase in user acquisition, but in November — when BTC reached the long-awaited $100,000 milestone during an ongoing price rally — user acquisition actually fell 28.5% month-over-month.
Ethereum and L2 performance
Ethereum’s user acquisition overall outpaced its legacy L2 peers, but Arbitrum also saw impressive monthly growth.
Ethereum outperformed its two leading L2 chains in 2024, acquiring an average of 1.56 million users per month, compared to Arbitrum’s 1.2 million and Optimism’s 348,800. Excluding December, Ethereum only saw four months of month-over-month declines, reaching a monthly peak of 1.9 million new users in March—a 33.4% month-over-month increase.
Both Arbitrum and Optimism started the year fairly strongly, reaching their peak 2024 acquisition user growth in April and May, respectively, before declining user growth for the rest of the year.
It is worth noting, however, that the 3.3 million users Arbitrum reached in May exceeded any single-month peak of Ethereum in 2024. In this context, Arbitrum's user growth continued to outpace Optimism throughout the year, thanks to the success of its Arbitrum One program and the integration expansion of GameFi and SocialFi. With 169 builder grants approved in the first half of 2024, coupled with many behind-the-scenes developments, it remains to be seen whether the chain can reclaim its position as the world's leading EVM L2 chain.
Performance of new public chains in 2024
Among the public chains launched in 2024, Aleo achieved the highest average growth in user acquisition, while Blast set a single-month record before gradually fading.
In terms of newly launched public chains, Aleo had the highest growth in user acquisition in the months they were launched, reaching an average of 175,200 users per month, compared to 134,900 for Blast and 90,700 for Aleo. This can be attributed to Blast’s sharp decline in user acquisition from July onwards, and Sei’s slow start, which only reached a month-on-month peak of 324,500 users in October despite its mainnet being launched several months ago.
It’s unclear whether these chains will be able to regain momentum in 2025 — especially considering Base experienced a similar post-launch cool-off before surging in 2024. Of the four new chains tracked, Lava has been overshadowed by its competitors so far, and while Blast posted the highest monthly user acquisition growth of any new chain in June, it still has a lot of catching up to do.
3. Super User
As of December 2024, Base has the most DeFi-related super users, with 15.1 million wallets performing 100 transactions or more.
In addition to gaining the most new users, Base also attracted the largest number of DeFi-related super users, with 38.4% more users performing 100 transactions or more than second-place Ethereum. It was followed by Ethereum with 10.7 million new super users and Polygon with 7 million.
Note: A super user is defined as a user who has performed at least 100 transactions on a chain, regardless of when the associated wallet was created or when the last transaction occurred.
Given Base’s explosive growth this year, its impressive number of super users may not be surprising. This success is likely due to Base surpassing many traditional public chains in multiple hot areas this year, including but not limited to meme coins and NFT transactions.
At the other end of the spectrum, Avalanche and Blast have seen similar numbers of superusers this year, averaging around 1.3 million, while Optimism has fared slightly better with 1.7 million users making at least 100 DeFi trades.
Polygon's Prominence
Polygon added the most super users this year and continues to stand out in terms of non-DeFi related super user activity.
Polygon has attracted 1.5 million new super users so far in 2024 — nearly double the number of second-place Base.
Polygon’s superuser activity also outpaced all other observed public chains, averaging 867.7 million superuser transactions per month this year. In addition to Base’s impressive 786.3 million superuser transactions, Arbitrum has also had a strong year to date in 2024, with 365.3 million superuser transactions.
Polygon’s strong performance continues its long-standing leadership in super user activity since 2021. In 2021, Polygon’s transaction volume reached 1.14 billion, setting a record for the highest super user activity among all blockchains, which remains to this day.
However, despite having the highest super user activity among all blockchains, Polygon only ranks third in the number of DeFi-related super user wallets. This shows that Polygon has successfully attracted a large number of high-frequency trading users through GameFi and other application scenarios, rather than relying solely on DeFi applications.
Ethereum has more super users in the DeFi space than Arbitrum and Optimism combined.
As of 2024, Ethereum's super users in the DeFi field have reached 10.9 million, second only to Base. This number is much higher than the sum of Arbitrum (6.2 million) and Optimism (1.8 million).
While EVM L2 (Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible second-layer network) generally has faster speeds and lower transaction costs, many users may still find cross-chain bridging assets too complicated or risky, or prefer to use the Ethereum mainnet due to its deeper liquidity and more mature market position.
However, Ethereum’s second-layer network needs to further explore ways to attract users rather than relying solely on its performance advantages over the Ethereum mainnet to attract on-chain activities.
4. DEX users
Uniswap continues to expand its market share across major blockchains, further solidifying its position as a leader in the decentralized exchange (DEX) space.
Uniswap remains the undisputed number one among all observed chains, with the exception of Avalanche and Blast chains. Especially on the Base chain, Uniswap’s user share soared from 36.8% to 91.3%. This achievement is particularly outstanding considering the exponential growth of Base chain users this year.
Similarly, Uniswap has also improved its performance on other major chains. Compared with 2023, its share of DEX activity on Ethereum has increased by 27.72%, and on Polygon it has increased by 12.57%. It is worth mentioning that Polygon’s DEX activity has always been more dispersed, and its user base has more diverse trading behaviors than other leading chains.
Even without considering Uniswap’s protocol upgrade, this phenomenon may reflect the “winner takes all” trend in the DeFi field, where larger platforms occupy a larger market share due to their deep liquidity and brand awareness.
On Avalanche, Trader Joe’s further solidified its lead, while Uniswap also moved up the rankings.
Uniswap is now the second most popular DEX on Avalanche, having not even made it into the top five in 2023. However, Trader Joe’s remains the most popular DEX on Avalanche, with 61.1% of the market share, and has increased its market share by about 6% since 2023.
As the first major DEX built natively on Avalanche, Trader Joe has been committed to maintaining and expanding its market leadership. The Auto-Pools feature launched in April this year makes it easier for liquidity providers (LPs) to automatically adjust their positions and compound their returns. In addition, the platform also supports liquidity staking for multiple Avalanche assets and actively expands to new chains such as Arbitrum and BNB Chain, verifying the feasibility of its unique liquidity book (LB) model.
Judging from the results, Trader Joe's efforts provide a successful case study for other platforms hoping to gain a foothold in the highly competitive DEX market.
The DEX preferences of power users and new users are converging, but the distribution of power users’ trading activities is still more dispersed.
Unlike in 2023, the top three DEXs used by both power users and new users are now consistent across every observed chain. This suggests that new users are becoming more skilled at mimicking the behavior of experienced traders, or that leading DEXs have found more efficient ways to optimize trade paths.
Despite this, super users’ trading activity is still distributed across more DEXs. Compared to new users, they are more familiar with a wider range of DeFi protocols and are willing to explore opportunities outside of mainstream platforms such as Uniswap in pursuit of higher returns or unique trading conditions.
Looking Ahead: Opportunities and Challenges for Web3 in 2025
On-chain data shows that the number of Web3 users will continue to grow in 2024, and traditional blockchains and emerging competitors are also facing the challenge of how to stand out in the market and provide attractive application scenarios for new and old users. In addition, the increase in the price of native tokens on the chain has not significantly promoted diversified on-chain activities, and emerging DeFi protocols have also encountered considerable resistance when challenging existing giants.
Here are some key trends to watch for in 2025:
Base becomes a benchmark for ecological expansion
In 2024, Base’s explosive growth has become a model for attracting and retaining new users, providing a reference for other new blockchains hoping to stand out. Base’s success in memecoin trading and on-chain AI applications shows that innovative use cases around hot areas will continue to drive user growth in 2025. However, how to convert these high-frequency trading activities into more sustained and diverse user engagement remains an important challenge.
Ethereum user growth brings new opportunities for L2 chains
Although Ethereum's second-layer network (L2) is generally more advantageous in performance, Ethereum still occupies a central position in the Web3 economy due to its large user base and liquidity. L2 chains like Optimism may further adjust their strategies to attract Ethereum's growing number of ordinary users and guide them to their own on-chain ecosystems.
Differentiation or economies of scale are the key to success
Uniswap’s growing market dominance suggests that the DeFi market is showing a “winner takes all” trend. However, chains such as Avalanche and Polygon have demonstrated that it is possible to gain a significant position in a specific market through targeted innovation. For example, Trader Joe’s Auto-Pools feature simplifies operations for liquidity providers, while Polygon’s GameFi project attracts a large number of gamers. Looking ahead to 2025, protocols that can provide differentiated on-chain services and go beyond traditional DeFi functions will be more likely to attract market attention.
The shift from user quantity to user quality
As new users continue to pour in, blockchain ecosystem builders need to find ways to incentivize users to participate in more diverse activities, such as governance voting and staking, rather than just trading. As the number of wallets grows rapidly, chains that prioritize user quality and focus on diverse participation will have an advantage in the long-term healthy development of the ecosystem.
5. Data-driven user quality insights
What are Flipside Scores?
As 2025 approaches, the Web3 industry is facing an important challenge: how to distinguish short-term activity from truly sustainable growth. While the surge in new users and transaction volume in 2024 brings an optimistic outlook for the industry, the key question is whether these users will stay for a long time and contribute to the long-term development of the blockchain ecosystem. Flipside Scores is designed to solve this problem.
Flipside Scores quantifies the quality of user on-chain activity by integrating 15 performance indicators across five categories. Unlike simple metrics based solely on transaction volume, this approach fully reflects the breadth and depth of user activity, revealing which ecosystems are performing well and where there is still room for improvement.
User quality trends of different chains
Overall, with the surge in the number of wallets and on-chain transactions in 2024, the quality of users of each chain has declined. This phenomenon reflects that the industry has attracted a large number of new users, who are currently less engaged but are expected to gradually explore the diverse use cases provided by Web3 in the future.
Here are some key findings:
Base: One of the classic success stories in terms of user growth in 2024. Although the chain has a low user quality score, this does not mean that Base is performing poorly overall. On the contrary, it shows that its large new user base is currently concentrated in fewer on-chain activities, and Base still has huge room for improvement in the future by guiding these users to participate in more diverse ecological activities.
ETH: Several U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-approved ETH ETFs have seen a significant decline in user quality ahead of their launch. This shows that although the entry of institutional funds can drive rapid growth in the number of wallets, without sufficient incentive mechanisms and convenient ways to participate (such as protocol governance), it may be difficult to increase the depth of users' on-chain activities.
Blast: It successfully attracted users to actively participate in multiple on-chain activities in the early days of its launch, demonstrating its strong ability to incentivize gamified activities. Although Blast's user growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2024, the remaining users remained active in multiple areas, indicating that the chain is expected to go beyond the initial popularity and achieve long-term development.
