The crypto industry had an amazing year in 2024, with rising coin prices fueling excitement across the board. However, when it comes to on-chain users, there were some interesting trends observed by blockchain growth platform Flipside. Their report reveals that while some networks saw tremendous growth, others struggled to maintain user numbers or even attract new ones.
One standout performer was Base, a layer-2 network launched by Coinbase. According to the report, Base’s user base grew exponentially throughout the year, with monthly acquired users increasing by a whopping 56 times from January. In fact, by October 2024, they had seen a record high of 19.4 million new users – a number that’s 8 times higher than the second-placed layer-2 network, Polygon.
But it wasn’t just about acquiring new users; Base also managed to attract a significant number of super users – those who execute over 100 decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions per month. By the end of the year, they had amassed an impressive 15.1 million super users, which was 38.4% higher than the next best performer, Ethereum.
Ethereum itself saw strong growth in its user activity too, particularly when it came to DeFi-related super users. Despite being outperformed by Base in terms of overall super users, Ethereum managed to attract 10.9 million DeFi super users – a figure that dwarfs both Arbitrum and Optimism’s combined total of 7.2 million.
Interestingly, Flipside notes that the growing institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies could have played a role in driving this growth across certain chains. Additionally, they point out that notable developments like Grayscale listing several new cryptocurrencies as “assets under consideration” might also have contributed to the increase in user numbers.
However, not all chains fared so well. Despite bitcoin’s historic price surge and the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, the number of acquired users on the Bitcoin network only increased by 935,900 monthly. Furthermore, there was a drop of 28.5% in acquired users during the post-US election rally in November – indicating that much of the growth may have been driven by speculative activity rather than genuine new user onboarding.
Overall, it seems that the crypto industry still has some work to do when it comes to attracting and retaining users beyond those already heavily invested in the space. Nevertheless, initiatives like Base’s impressive growth show that progress is being made towards creating accessible, user-friendly platforms for everyone interested in exploring all that blockchain technology has to offer.
Source
As per reported by cryptopotato.com
