Source: cryptoslate
Compiled by: Blockchain Knight
According to Crypto.com’s latest market size report, the number of holders in the global Crypto asset market has increased significantly in the first half of this year.
As of June, the number of holders increased from 580 million at the end of 2023 to 617 million, an increase of 6.4%.
The growth was mainly due to important developments in the BTC and Ethereum ecosystems, especially the launch of spot trading funds related to these two digital assets.
BTC remains the most dominant Crypto asset, with holdings growing by 5.9% to 314 million by the middle of the year, accounting for 51% of all Crypto asset holders.
Meanwhile, Ethereum adoption grew even faster, increasing by 9.7%, bringing the total number of Ethereum holders to 136 million, representing 22% of the global market.
The report states that two major events have driven the growth of BTC adoption. The launch of spot BTC ETFs in the United States and the flagship crypto asset’s fourth halving in April both played a key role.
The halving event reduced the miner's block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, enhancing BTC's appeal as "digital gold" and attracting the interest of a large number of institutions.
The report estimates that between 388,000 and 1.6 million individuals have invested in BTC through U.S. spot ETFs, further driving BTC adoption.
Ethereum’s growth is largely due to the Dencun upgrade in March, which significantly reduced transaction fees on the Ethereum L2 network. The upgrade enhanced Ethereum’s scalability and led to a surge in L2 activity, which now accounts for about 90% of all transactions on the Ethereum network, up from 77% before the upgrade.
In addition, in the first quarter, liquidity re-staking programs in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem pushed DeFi’s total locked value (TVL) to $100 billion, nearly 2 times higher than the previous quarter.
The report highlights strong growth in March and April, with monthly increases of 1.7% and 1.6% respectively, coinciding with the BTC halving and the Dencun upgrade.
Institutional investors have played a key role in BTC’s continued growth during this period, with U.S. spot BTC ETFs attracting over $14 billion in inflows as of the end of June.
Ethereum also benefited from increased institutional interest, especially before the SEC dropped its investigation into Ethereum and the regulator approved a spot Ethereum ETF, both of which boosted investor confidence in Ethereum and the market as a whole. The initial surge in interest led to a rally in ETH prices to $3,900 by June.
Spot ETFs have achieved impressive performance since their launch, with funds linked to BTC breaking multiple records in the ETF market.
However, despite significant growth in the first half of the year, the BTC market has struggled to break through its all-time highs in recent weeks as selling pressure increased due to macroeconomic pressures and worsening geopolitical situation in the Middle East.
As of now, BTC is trading at $59,121, while ETH is trading at $2,612, both of which are down significantly from the highest prices reached this year.
