Article reprint source: ShenChao TechFlow
Author: Flipside
Translation: ShenChao TechFlow
1. Introduction
On-Chain User Trends Towards 2025
2024 is a turning point for Web3 user growth, with the number of new users and super users on major public chains reaching all-time highs. Public chains like Base have redefined what exponential growth is, while Ethereum and its L2 solutions have demonstrated how deeply rooted ecosystems can adapt to evolving user needs.
However, a deeper dive into the data reveals that not all growth carries the same value—highlighting the importance of emphasizing quality as well as quantity when assessing on-chain activity.
To this end, this report leverages Flipside's real-time data on crypto users on-chain in 2024, evaluating this year's cryptocurrency activity through more actionable multivariate metrics in addition to traditional performance indicators, providing new ways to assess the health of on-chain users in 2025.
Summary
Behind the headlines of user growth lies a deeper challenge: how to build ecosystems that create meaningful, lasting engagement rather than just fleeting speculative behavior.
In short, most blockchains are still at the starting stage in converting ordinary users into high-value contributors.
Acquired User Situation:
Base recorded 19.4 million new acquired users in October 2024, contributing 13.7 million users—almost eight times that of second-ranked Polygon.
BTC: BTC price reached an all-time high of over $100,000, with the monthly average of newly acquired Bitcoin users only increasing by 935,900, indicating that there is widespread speculative activity among existing users rather than a significant influx of new users.
ETH: The average monthly acquisition of users reached 1.56 million, surpassing Arbitrum and Optimism, with a sequential user growth of 33.4% in March. Notably, Arbitrum achieved a remarkable peak of 3.3 million acquired users in May.
Super User Situation:
Base: Attracted 15.1 million wallets that executed 100+ DeFi transactions, exceeding the 10.7 million super users of second-ranked Ethereum by 38.4%.
ETH: The number of DeFi-related super users has reached 10.9 million, exceeding the combined totals of Arbitrum and Optimism (6.2 million and 1.8 million, respectively), highlighting Ethereum's advantages in liquidity and convenience.
Polygon: 1.5 million new super users were added in 2024, and this year recorded 867.7 million super user transactions, highlighting its success in applications beyond DeFi.
DEX Usage:
Uniswap: Expanded its dominance on major public chains, accounting for 91.3% of new user DEX activity on Base, and its market share on Ethereum increased by 27.72% compared to 2023.
Despite Uniswap's growth, Trader Joe still maintains its leading position on Avalanche, with a market share of 61.1%, up 6.1% compared to 2023.
Unlike in 2023, in 2024, the top three DEX rankings for acquired users and super users across all observed public chains remain consistent.
2. Newly Acquired Users
The number of newly acquired users peaked at 19.4 million in October 2024.
This year, on-chain user growth has been led by Base, which contributed 13.7 million newly acquired users—almost eight times that of the second-ranked Polygon. Overall, this has been an impressive year for on-chain user growth across the entire industry, with the number of acquired users showing a continuous upward trend throughout 2024, only experiencing a slight pullback in August.
Note: The definition of 'acquired users' refers to users who have conducted at least 2 transactions on a particular chain, with the second transaction occurring in 2024.
This continuous growth may be influenced by the increased acceptance of cryptocurrencies by institutions, as reflected in a series of BTC and ETH ETFs announced earlier this year.
Other exciting developments in the first half of 2024 may have contributed to this optimism, such as Grayscale listing several new cryptocurrencies as 'assets under consideration,' and the Federal Reserve's decision to lower U.S. interest rates by 50 basis points during the September 2024 FOMC meeting—the first rate cut in four years.
Base's Amazing Growth
Base started slowly in 2024 but has seen its monthly new acquisition user count explode by 56 times since January.
Base had only 244,700 acquired users in January but experienced stable and significant growth throughout the year. By November, when it peaked, the monthly number of acquired users had increased 56 times compared to January, averaging 4.7 million newly acquired users during 2024.
The performance of this chain greatly benefits from Coinbase's large user base, which collectively manages approximately $130 billion in assets. Popular DeFi protocols like Aerodrome may also attract users from other EVM chains, while Base successfully drove user interest in popular areas such as memecoin trading and on-chain AI (such as new plans like Based Agents).
Bitcoin Performance
Despite Bitcoin's price reaching an all-time high, it did not attract a large number of new users this year.
Newly acquired Bitcoin users remained relatively stable in 2024, despite the significant appreciation of BTC value. Overall, the monthly average growth of newly acquired Bitcoin users this year is 935,900, ranking third from the bottom among the seven traditional public chains observed in this report.
This indicates that the appreciation of Bitcoin's price is primarily driven by the enthusiasm and speculative activities of its existing user base, while the growth in BTC price has mixed effects on attracting new users.
In March 2024, Bitcoin's first major price surge coincided with a sequential user acquisition growth of 19.2%. However, in November—during the ongoing price increase when Bitcoin reached the long-awaited $100,000 milestone—the actual sequential acquisition of users declined by 28.5%.
Ethereum vs. L2 Performance
Ethereum's acquired users overall surpassed its traditional L2, but Arbitrum also showed impressive single-month growth.
Ethereum's growth in 2024 surpassed its two leading L2 chains, with an average monthly acquisition of 1.56 million users, compared to Arbitrum's 1.2 million and Optimism's 348,800. Excluding December, Ethereum only saw four months of sequential decline, peaking in March with 1.9 million new users—a sequential growth of 33.4%.
Arbitrum and Optimism both started the year with considerable momentum, reaching peaks in user acquisition growth in April and May 2024, but user growth declined for the remainder of the year.
However, it is worth noting that Arbitrum reached an impressive 3.3 million acquired users in May, surpassing any single-month peak for Ethereum in 2024. In this context, Arbitrum's user acquisition growth consistently outperformed Optimism throughout the year, thanks to the success of its Arbitrum One initiative and the integration and expansion of GameFi and SocialFi. Whether this chain can reclaim its position as the global leading EVM L2 chain remains to be seen with 169 builder grants approved in the first half of 2024, along with several behind-the-scenes progress.
Performance of New Public Chains in 2024
Among the public chains launched in 2024, Aleo achieved the highest average growth in acquired users, while Blast gradually faded after setting a single-month record.
Among newly launched public chains, Aleo achieved the highest growth in acquired users, with a monthly average of 175,200 acquired users, compared to Blast and Aleo's respective 134,900 and 90,700 users. This can be attributed to Blast's sharp decline in user acquisition since July, and Sei's slow start—despite its mainnet launching months ago, it did not reach a peak of 324,500 users until October.
It remains unclear whether these public chains can regain growth momentum in 2025—especially considering that Base also experienced a similar post-launch cooling period before its surge in 2024. Among the four new public chains tracked, Lava's performance has been overshadowed by competitors, while Blast, despite achieving the highest monthly user acquisition growth among newly launched chains in June, still has much ground to catch up.
3. Super Users
As of December 2024, Base has the most DeFi-related super users, with 15.1 million wallets executing 100 or more transactions.
In addition to acquiring the most new users, Base also attracted the largest number of DeFi-related super users, with the number of users executing 100 or more transactions exceeding that of second-ranked Ethereum by 38.4%. Following closely are Ethereum's 10.7 million new super users and Polygon's 7 million.
Note: The definition of 'super users' refers to users who have executed at least 100 transactions on a particular chain, regardless of the creation time of the relevant wallets or the timing of the last transaction.
Considering Base's explosive growth this year, its impressive number of super users is perhaps not surprising. This success is likely attributed to Base outpacing many traditional public chains in several popular areas this year, including but not limited to memecoin and NFT trading.
On the other end, Avalanche and Blast had similar numbers of super users this year, averaging around 1.3 million, while Optimism performed slightly better with 1.7 million users conducting at least 100 DeFi transactions.
Polygon's Outstanding Performance
Polygon has added the most super users this year and continues to stand out in non-DeFi-related super user activity.
Polygon has attracted 1.5 million new super users so far in 2024—almost double that of the second-ranked Base.
Polygon's super user activity also surpassed all other observed public chains, with an average monthly super user transaction volume of 867.7 million this year. Besides Base's impressive 786.3 million super user transactions, Arbitrum has also performed strongly in 2024, reaching 365.3 million super user transactions.
Polygon's outstanding performance continues its long-standing leadership in super user activity since 2021. In 2021, Polygon's transaction volume reached 1.14 billion, setting the highest record for super user activity across all blockchains, which remains to this day.
However, despite Polygon having the highest volume of super user activity among all blockchains, the number of DeFi-related super user wallets only ranks third. This indicates that Polygon has successfully attracted a large number of high-frequency trading users through GameFi and other application scenarios, rather than solely relying on DeFi applications.
Ethereum's super user count in the DeFi space exceeds the total of Arbitrum and Optimism.
As of 2024, Ethereum's super users in the DeFi space have reached 10.9 million, second only to Base. This number far surpasses the combined total of Arbitrum (6.2 million) and Optimism (1.8 million).
While EVM L2s (Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer 2 networks) typically offer faster speeds and lower transaction costs, many users may still find cross-chain bridging of assets too complex or risky, or prefer to use the Ethereum mainnet due to its deeper liquidity and more mature market position.
However, Ethereum's layer 2 network needs to further explore ways to attract users, rather than solely relying on its performance advantages compared to the Ethereum mainnet to drive on-chain activity.
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.
Among all observed chains, Uniswap remains the undisputed number one, with exceptions only on Avalanche and Blast chains. Particularly on Base, Uniswap's user share soared from 36.8% to 91.3%. Given the exponential growth of users on Base this year, this achievement is especially remarkable.
Similarly, Uniswap's performance on other major chains has also improved. Compared to 2023, its share of DEX activity on Ethereum increased by 27.72%, and on Polygon by 12.57%. Notably, Polygon has historically had a more dispersed distribution of DEX activity, with its user base exhibiting more diverse trading behaviors compared to other leading chains.
Even without considering Uniswap's protocol upgrades, this phenomenon may reflect the 'winner-takes-all' trend in the DeFi space, where larger platforms capture a greater market share due to their deep liquidity and brand recognition.
On Avalanche, Trader Joe further consolidated its leading position, while Uniswap's ranking also rose.
Uniswap has now become the second most popular DEX on Avalanche, having failed to even make the top five in 2023. However, Trader Joe remains the most popular DEX on Avalanche, capturing 61.1% of the market share, and its market share has increased by about 6% since 2023.
As the first major DEX natively built on Avalanche, Trader Joe has been committed to maintaining and expanding its market leadership. The Auto-Pools feature launched this April allows liquidity providers (LPs) to more easily automate position adjustments and compound earnings. Additionally, the platform supports liquid staking of various Avalanche assets and actively expands to new chains like Arbitrum and BNB Chain, validating the viability of its unique liquidity book (LB) model.
As a result, Trader Joe's efforts provide a valuable case study for others hoping to establish a foothold in the highly competitive DEX market.
The DEX preferences of super users and new users are becoming more aligned, but the trading activity distribution of super users remains more dispersed.
Unlike in 2023, the top three DEXs used by super users and new users on each observed chain are now consistent. This indicates that new users have become more adept at mimicking the behavior of experienced traders, or that leading DEXs have found more effective ways to optimize trading paths.
Nonetheless, super users' trading activities remain distributed across more DEXs, and compared to new users, they are more familiar with a broader range of DeFi protocols and willing to explore opportunities beyond mainstream platforms like Uniswap for higher yields or unique trading conditions.
Looking Ahead: Opportunities and Challenges for Web3 in 2025
On-chain data shows that the number of Web3 users continues to grow in 2024, while traditional blockchains and emerging competitors also face the challenge of standing out in the market and providing attractive application scenarios for both new and existing users. Additionally, the rise in prices of on-chain native tokens has not significantly driven diversified on-chain activities, while emerging DeFi protocols face considerable resistance when challenging established giants.
Here are some key trends to look out for in 2025:
Base becomes a benchmark for ecological expansion
In 2024, Base became a model for attracting and retaining new users with its explosive user growth, serving as a reference for other new blockchains looking to emerge. Base's success in memecoin trading and on-chain AI applications indicates that innovative use cases around popular areas will continue to drive user growth in 2025. However, a significant challenge remains in how to convert these high-frequency trading activities into more lasting and diverse user participation.
Ethereum user growth brings new opportunities for L2 chains
Although Ethereum's layer 2 networks (L2) typically have performance advantages, Ethereum remains at the core of the Web3 economy due to its vast user base and liquidity. L2 chains like Optimism may need to further adjust their strategies to attract the growing number of ordinary users from Ethereum and guide them into their own on-chain ecosystems.
Differentiation or economies of scale are key to success
Uniswap's market dominance is increasingly evident, indicating a 'winner-takes-all' trend in the DeFi market. However, chains like Avalanche and Polygon have demonstrated that targeted innovations can allow them to capture significant positions in specific markets. For example, Trader Joe's Auto-Pools feature simplifies operations for liquidity providers, while Polygon's GameFi projects have attracted a large number of gamers. Looking towards 2025, protocols that can offer differentiated on-chain services beyond traditional DeFi functionalities are more likely to attract market attention.
The shift from user quantity to user quality
As new users continue to flow in, builders in the blockchain ecosystem need to find ways to incentivize users to engage in more diversified activities, such as governance voting and staking, rather than just transactional behavior. With the rapid growth of wallet numbers, chains that prioritize user quality and focus on diversified participation will hold an advantage in the healthy long-term development of the ecosystem.
5. Data-Driven User Quality Insights
What are Flipside Scores?
As 2025 approaches, the Web3 industry faces a significant challenge: how to distinguish between short-term active phenomena and truly sustainable growth. While the surge in new users and transaction volumes in 2024 brings optimistic prospects for the industry, the key question is whether these users will remain in the long term and contribute to the long-term development of blockchain ecosystems. Flipside Scores was specifically designed to address this issue.
Flipside Scores quantifies the quality of user on-chain activity by integrating 15 performance metrics (covering five categories). Unlike simple metrics based only on transaction volume, this approach comprehensively reflects the breadth and depth of user activity, revealing which ecosystems perform well and where there is room for improvement.
User Quality Trends Across Different Chains
Overall, in 2024, as the number of wallets and on-chain transaction volumes surged, the user quality across chains has declined. This phenomenon reflects the industry's attraction of a large number of new users, who currently have low engagement but are expected to gradually explore the diverse use cases offered by Web3 in the future.
Here are some key findings:
Base: One of the typical success stories in user growth for 2024. Although the user quality rating of this chain is low, it does not mean that Base is performing poorly overall. On the contrary, it indicates that its large new user base is currently mainly concentrated in a limited number of chain activities, and there is still significant potential for Base to enhance its ecosystem by guiding these users to participate in more diverse activities in the future.
ETH: There was a significant decline in user quality prior to the listing of several SEC-approved ETH ETFs. This suggests that while the influx of institutional funds can rapidly boost wallet numbers, the depth of users' on-chain activity may be difficult to enhance without sufficient incentive mechanisms and convenient participation pathways (such as protocol governance).
Blast: Successfully attracted users to actively participate in multiple chain activities during its early launch, demonstrating its strong capability in incentivizing gamified activities. Although Blast's user growth has slowed in the fourth quarter of 2024, remaining users are still active in various fields, indicating that this chain is likely to surpass its initial hype and achieve long-term development.
