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The crypto industry grew remarkably in 2024 amid rising coin prices, but the same cannot be said for on-chain users across most relevant chains. A 2024 on-chain user report by the blockchain growth platform Flipside revealed a need for networks to offer quantity and quality on-chain activity to attract users and turn them into high-value contributors.
According to the report shared with CryptoPotato, only Base, the layer-2 network launched by the largest American crypto exchange, Coinbase, experienced exponential growth in user count for 2024. Other networks, like Bitcoin and some Ethereum-based layer-2 chains, struggled to maintain their growth or even attract new users throughout the year.
Base and Ethereum Take the Lead
Flipside’s report revealed that Base’s monthly acquired users skyrocketed by 56x this year despite starting slow in January. In October 2024, the crypto space saw its newly acquired users surge to a record 19.4 million, however, Base contributed 13.7 million, almost 8x the second highest-contributing chain, Polygon.
During this year, Base also attracted 15.1 million super users executing over 100 decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions. This growth was 38.4% more than that of the next chain, Ethereum, which saw 10.7 million super users.
Besides Base, Ethereum also saw impressive growth in its user activity. The second-largest crypto network averaged 1.56 million acquired users per month, surpassing its layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism. The chain’s DeFi-related super users amounted to 10.9 million, crushing Arbitrum and Optimism’s respective 6.2 million and 1.8 million user count.
Flipside noted that the growing institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies likely drove this growth across some chains. Notable developments, such as the leading asset manager Grayscale listing several new cryptocurrencies as “assets under consideration,” must also have fueled the growth.
Bitcoin Users Barely Grew
On the other hand, Bitcoin’s acquired users grew by 935,900 monthly despite bitcoin’s (BTC) historic surge above the $100,000 level and the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States.
During bitcoin’s major rally in March, the network saw a 19.2% uptick in acquired users monthly. Unfortunately, Bitcoin’s acquired users dropped 28.5% during the post-U.S. election rally in November.
Flipside said this development indicates widespread speculative activity among existing Bitcoin users and not significant new user onboarding.
Meanwhile, the decentralized exchange Uniswap maintained and expanded its dominance across major chains, especially on Base and Ethereum.
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