Despite the overall growth in the crypto industry in 2024 due to rising coin prices, there was a noticeable lack of growth in terms of on-chain users across many relevant chains. According to a report by Flipside, a blockchain growth platform, there’s a need for networks to offer both quantity and quality on-chain activity to attract users and turn them into high-value contributors.
Interestingly, the layer-2 network launched by Coinbase, called “Base,” experienced exponential growth in user count for 2024. On the other hand, other networks like Bitcoin and some Ethereum-based layer-2 chains struggled to maintain their growth or even attract new users throughout the year. Base Takes the Lead Flipside’s report revealed that Base’s monthly acquired users skyrocketed by 56 times this year despite starting slow in January.
By October 2024, the crypto space saw its newly acquired users surge to a record 19.4 million, and Base contributed 13.7 million users, which was nearly eight times the number of users on the second-highest-contributing chain, Polygon. Moreover, Base also attracted 15.1 million super users who executed over 100 decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions during this period.
This growth was 38.4% higher than that of the next chain, Ethereum, which saw 10.7 million super users. Ethereum Follows Suit Apart from Base, Ethereum also saw impressive growth in its 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 10.9 million DeFi-related super users, crushing Arbitrum and Optimism’s respective 6.2 million and 1.8 million user counts. Institutional Acceptance and Other Developments Flipside noted that the growing institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies likely drove this growth across some chains.
For instance, the leading asset manager Grayscale listing several new cryptocurrencies as “assets under consideration” might have fueled the growth. However, Bitcoin’s acquired users barely grew by 935,900 monthly despite bitcoin’s historic surge above the $100,000 level and the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States.
During bitcoin’s major rally in March, the network saw a 19.2% uptick in acquired users monthly, but it dropped 28.5% during the post-U.S. election rally in November. Uniswap Dominates Across Major Chains Finally, the decentralized exchange Uniswap maintained and expanded its dominance across major chains, especially on Base and Ethereum.
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