As the cryptocurrency industry continued to grow in 2024, with rising coin prices fueling excitement, it became clear that not all chains were able to attract new users at the same rate. According to a recent report by blockchain growth platform Flipside, there was a need for networks to offer both quantity and quality of on-chain activity in order to attract users and turn them into valuable contributors.
While some chains, like Bitcoin, struggled to maintain their user base or even attract new users throughout the year, others like Base and Ethereum saw impressive growth. Base, the layer-2 network launched by Coinbase, experienced exponential growth in user count in 2024, with its monthly acquired users increasing by 56 times from January.
In fact, the crypto space saw its newly acquired users surge to a record 19.4 million in October, and Base contributed a whopping 13.7 million of those, nearly eight times the number of new users on the second-highest contributing chain, Polygon. This growth wasn’t just limited to new users; Base also attracted 15.1 million super users who executed over 100 decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions each month.
This number was 38.4% higher than the next chain, Ethereum, which saw 10.7 million super users. Ethereum itself saw impressive growth in its user activity during the year. While it only averaged 1.56 million acquired users per month, significantly lower than Base’s 13.7 million, it surpassed its layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism in terms of DeFi-related super users, with 10.9 million compared to Arbitrum’s 6.2 million and Optimism’s 1.8 million.
However, not all chains fared as well. Despite Bitcoin’s historic surge above $100,000 and the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, the number of acquired users on the network only grew by 935,900 monthly. Additionally, after a 19.2% uptick in acquired users during Bitcoin’s major rally in March, the number of users dropped 28.5% during the post-election rally in November, indicating widespread speculative activity rather than significant new user onboarding.
Decentralized exchanges also continued to dominate major chains, particularly on Base and Ethereum. Overall, the report highlights the importance of offering both quantity and quality of on-chain activity to attract and retain valuable users in the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency.
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