The crypto industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years, particularly with the rise of coin prices. However, on-chain activity hasn’t necessarily kept pace across all relevant networks. According to a 2024 on-chain user report from blockchain growth platform Flipside, there’s a clear need for networks to offer both quantity and quality of on-chain activity to attract users and convert them into high-value contributors.
While some chains like Bitcoin struggled to maintain their growth or attract new users throughout the year, others like Base and Ethereum took the lead. Base experienced exponential growth in user count for 2024, with its monthly acquired users surging by 56 times from January. By October, the crypto space saw a record 19.4 million new users, and Base contributed 13.7 million of those – nearly eight times higher than the second-highest contributor, Polygon.
Moreover, Base also saw impressive growth in its super users executing over 100 decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions, reaching 15.1 million – 38.4% more than the next chain, Ethereum, which had 10.7 million super users. Ethereum itself saw significant growth in user activity this year, particularly in its DeFi-related super users, which totaled 10.9 million – crushing competitors Arbitrum and Optimism’s respective 6.2 million and 1.8 million user counts.
Interestingly, while Bitcoin’s acquired users grew by 935,900 monthly despite its historic price surge and the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), there was a drop of 28.5% in acquired users during the post-US election rally in November – indicating widespread speculative activity rather than significant new user onboarding.
Overall, it seems that certain chains are doing better than others when it comes to attracting and retaining users through quality on-chain activity. As the industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these trends change and which networks emerge as leaders in terms of both price performance and user engagement.
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