Annual report on on-chain users: The number of new monthly users reached 19.4 million, with Base chain contributing nearly 70% of the increase

Creator: flipside

Compiled by: TechFlow

1. Introduction

On-chain person developments in the direction of 2025

2024 is a turning level for Web3 person development, with new users and tremendous users on main public chains hitting file highs. Public chains like Base redefine what exponential development is, whereas Ethereum and its L2 options show how a deep-rooted ecosystem can adapt to evolving person wants.

Nevertheless, digging deeper into the knowledge reveals that not all development is equal — highlighting the significance of focusing not simply on amount but in addition high quality when evaluating on-chain exercise.

To this finish, this report is predicated on Flipside’s real-time knowledge on on-chain crypto users in 2024. Along with conventional efficiency indicators, it additionally evaluates this 12 months’s cryptocurrency actions by way of extra actionable multivariate indicators, offering a new strategy to assess the well being of on-chain users in 2025.

Temporary abstract

Behind the information of person development lies a deeper problem: learn how to construct ecosystems that create significant, lasting engagement, not simply short-lived speculative play.

Briefly, most blockchains are nonetheless of their infancy in relation to changing common users into high-value contributors.

Get person info:

Base: In October 2024, it set a file of 19.4 million newly acquired users, of which Base contributed 13.7 million users – virtually 8 occasions that of the second-place Polygon.

BTC: BTC worth hit a file excessive of over $100,000, and the common monthly increase in Bitcoin users was solely 935,900, indicating widespread hypothesis amongst present users somewhat than vital entry of new users.

ETH: The common monthly person acquisition reached 1.56 million, surpassing Arbitrum and Optimism, and the month-on-month person development in March reached 33.4%. It’s value noting that Arbitrum hit an excellent peak of 3.3 million users in a single month in Could.

Tremendous person scenario:

Base: Attracted 15.1 million wallets which have executed 100+ DeFi transactions, 38.4% greater than the 10.7 million tremendous users of Ethereum, the second-ranked Ethereum.

ETH: 10.9 million DeFi-related tremendous users exceed the complete of Arbitrum and Optimism (6.2 million and 1.8 million, respectively), highlighting Ethereum’s benefits in liquidity and comfort.

Polygon: Added 1.5 million new tremendous users in 2024 and recorded 867.7 million tremendous person transactions this 12 months, highlighting its success in utility areas past DeFi.

DEX utilization:

Uniswap: Expanded its dominance on main public chains, accounting for 91.3% of new person DEX exercise on Base and elevated its market share on Ethereum by 27.72% in comparison with 2023.

Regardless of Uniswap’s development, Dealer Joe’s maintained its lead over Avalanche with 61.1% market share, up 6.1% from 2023.

Not like 2023, in 2024 the high three DEX rankings for buying users and tremendous users throughout all noticed public chains now stay constant.

2. Newly acquired users

The number of newly acquired users reached a monthly peak of 19.4 million in October 2024.

On-chain person development this 12 months was led by Base, which contributed 13.7 million new users in the month – virtually 8 occasions that of second-place Polygon. Total, it was a formidable 12 months for the complete on-chain person development trade. The number of acquired users continued to rise all through 2024, with solely a small pullback in August.

Notice: An “buying person” is outlined as a person who has made a minimum of 2 transactions on a chain, with the second transaction occurring in 2024.

This continued development could also be influenced by elevated institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by the slew of BTC and ETH ETFs introduced earlier this 12 months.

Different thrilling developments in the first half of 2024 may have fueled this optimism, akin to Grayscale itemizing a number of new cryptocurrencies as “property into account” and the Federal Reserve slicing U.S. rates of interest by 50 foundation factors throughout the September 2024 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) assembly — the first fee reduce in 4 years.

Base’s Astonishing Development

Base had a gradual begin in 2024, however since January, its monthly new person acquisitions have skyrocketed 56 occasions.

Base had solely 244,700 acquired users in January, however skilled regular and vital development all through the 12 months. At its peak in November, the chain’s monthly person acquisitions had grown 56 occasions in comparison with January, averaging 4.7 million new acquired users per thirty days throughout 2024.

The chain’s efficiency has benefited enormously from Coinbase’s large person base, which collectively manages round $130 billion in property. Standard DeFi protocols like Aerodrome could have additionally attracted users from different EVM chains, whereas Base has efficiently pushed person curiosity by way of scorching areas akin to memecoin buying and selling and on-chain AI (new initiatives akin to Primarily based Brokers).

Bitcoin Efficiency

Regardless of file highs in BTC costs, it has not attracted a big number of new users this 12 months.

Bitcoin’s new person acquisition stays comparatively steady in 2024, regardless of the vital appreciation of BTC’s worth. Total, Bitcoin’s common monthly person acquisition development this 12 months is 935,900, rating third from the backside amongst the seven conventional public chains noticed on this report.

This implies that Bitcoin’s worth appreciation is primarily pushed by enthusiasm and hypothesis from its present person base, whereas BTC worth development has had combined leads to attracting new users.

In March 2024, BTC’s first main worth surge coincided with a 19.2% month-over-month increase in person acquisition, however in November — when BTC reached the long-awaited $100,000 milestone throughout an ongoing worth rally — person acquisition truly fell by 28.5% month-over-month.

Ethereum and L2 efficiency

Ethereum’s person acquisition total outpaced its legacy L2 friends, however Arbitrum additionally noticed spectacular monthly development.

Ethereum outperformed its two main L2 chains in 2024, buying a median of 1.56 million users per thirty days, in comparison with Arbitrum’s 1.2 million and Optimism’s 348,800. Excluding December, Ethereum solely noticed a month-over-month decline in 4 months, reaching a monthly peak of 1.9 million new users in March—a 33.4% month-over-month increase.

Each Arbitrum and Optimism began the 12 months pretty strongly, reaching their peak 2024 acquisition person development in April and Could, respectively, earlier than declining person development for the relaxation of the 12 months.

It’s value noting, nevertheless, that Arbitrum’s 3.3 million acquisitions in Could exceeded any monthly peak achieved by Ethereum in 2024. On this context, Arbitrum’s acquisition development continued to outpace Optimism all through the 12 months, due to the success of its Arbitrum One program and the integration enlargement of GameFi and SocialFi. With 169 builder grants authorised in the first half of 2024, coupled with many behind-the-scenes developments, it stays to be seen whether or not the chain can reclaim its place as the world’s main EVM L2 chain.

Efficiency of new public chains in 2024

Amongst the public chains launched in 2024, Aleo achieved the highest common development in person acquisition, whereas Blast set a single-month file earlier than progressively fading.

In phrases of newly launched public chains, Aleo had the highest development in person acquisition in the month of launch, reaching a median of 175,200 users per thirty days, in comparison with 134,900 for Blast and 90,700 for Aleo. This may be attributed to the sharp decline in person acquisition for Blast from July onwards, and the gradual begin for Sei, which didn’t attain its month-on-month peak of 324,500 users till October, regardless of its mainnet being launched a number of months in the past.

It’s unclear whether or not these chains will be capable to regain momentum in 2025 — particularly contemplating that Base skilled an analogous post-launch cool-off earlier than surging in 2024. Of the 4 new chains tracked, Lava has been overshadowed by its opponents thus far, and whereas Blast posted the highest monthly person acquisition development of any new chain in June, it nonetheless has lots of catching as much as do.

3. Tremendous Consumer

As of December 2024, Base has the most DeFi-related tremendous users, with 15.1 million wallets performing 100 transactions or extra.

Along with gaining the most new users, Base additionally attracted the largest number of DeFi-related tremendous users, with 38.4% extra users performing 100 transactions or greater than second-place Ethereum, adopted by Ethereum with 10.7 million new tremendous users and Polygon with 7 million.

Notice: A “tremendous person” is outlined as a person who has carried out a minimum of 100 transactions on a chain, regardless of when the related pockets was created or when the final transaction occurred.

Contemplating Base’s explosive development this 12 months, its spectacular number of tremendous users might not be shocking. This success is probably going attributable to Base surpassing many conventional public chains in a number of scorching areas this 12 months, together with however not restricted to meme cash and NFT transactions.

At the different finish of the spectrum, Avalanche and Blast have seen comparable numbers of superusers this 12 months, averaging round 1.3 million, whereas Optimism fared barely higher with 1.7 million users making a minimum of 100 DeFi transactions.

Polygon’s Prominence

Polygon added the most tremendous users this 12 months and continues to face out in phrases of non-DeFi associated tremendous person exercise.

Polygon has attracted 1.5 million new tremendous users thus far in 2024 — nearly double the number of second-place Base.

Polygon’s superuser exercise additionally surpasses all different noticed public chains, with a median of 867.7 million superuser transactions per thirty days this 12 months. Along with Base’s spectacular 786.3 million superuser transactions, Arbitrum has additionally carried out strongly thus far in 2024, reaching 365.3 million superuser transactions.

Polygon’s robust efficiency continues its long-standing management in tremendous person exercise since 2021. In 2021, Polygon’s transaction quantity reached 1.14 billion, setting a file for the highest tremendous person exercise amongst all blockchains, which stays to this present day.

Nevertheless, though Polygon has the highest tremendous person exercise amongst all blockchains, its number of DeFi (decentralized finance)-related tremendous person wallets ranks solely third. This reveals that Polygon has efficiently attracted a big number of high-frequency buying and selling users by way of GameFi (chain recreation finance) and different utility situations, somewhat than relying solely on DeFi functions.

Ethereum has extra tremendous users in the DeFi house than Arbitrum and Optimism mixed.

As of 2024, Ethereum’s tremendous users in the DeFi area have reached 10.9 million, second solely to Base. This number is way increased than the sum of Arbitrum (6.2 million) and Optimism (1.8 million).

Whereas EVM L2 (Ethereum Digital Machine-compatible second-layer community) usually has sooner speeds and decrease transaction prices, many users should discover cross-chain bridging property too difficult or dangerous, or desire to make use of the Ethereum mainnet attributable to its deeper liquidity and extra mature market place.

Nevertheless, Ethereum’s second-layer community must additional discover methods to draw users somewhat than relying solely on its efficiency benefits over the Ethereum mainnet to draw on-chain actions.

4. DEX users

Uniswap continues to increase its market share throughout main blockchains, additional consolidating its place as a frontrunner in the decentralized trade (DEX) house.

Amongst all noticed chains, Uniswap stays the undisputed number one, with the exception of Avalanche and Blast chains. Particularly on the Base chain, Uniswap’s person share soared from 36.8% to 91.3%. Contemplating the exponential development of Base chain users this 12 months, this result’s notably excellent.

Equally, Uniswap’s efficiency on different main chains has additionally improved. In contrast with 2023, its share of DEX exercise on Ethereum elevated by 27.72%, and on Polygon it elevated by 12.57%. It’s value mentioning that Polygon’s DEX exercise has all the time been extra dispersed, and its person base has extra numerous buying and selling behaviors than different main chains.

Even with out contemplating Uniswap’s protocol improve, this phenomenon could replicate the “winner takes all” development in the DeFi area, the place bigger platforms occupy a bigger market share attributable to their deep liquidity and model consciousness.

On Avalanche, Dealer Joe’s additional solidified its lead, whereas Uniswap additionally moved up the rankings.

Uniswap is now the second hottest DEX on Avalanche, whereas in 2023, it was not even in the high 5. Nevertheless, Dealer Joe’s stays the hottest DEX on Avalanche, with 61.1% of the market share, and has elevated its market share by about 6% since 2023.

As the first main DEX constructed natively on Avalanche, Dealer Joe has been dedicated to sustaining and increasing its market management. The Auto-Swimming pools characteristic launched in April this 12 months makes it simpler for liquidity suppliers (LPs) to routinely modify positions and compound returns. As well as, the platform additionally helps liquidity pledges for a number of Avalanche property and actively expands to new chains akin to Arbitrum and BNB Chain, verifying the feasibility of its distinctive liquidity ebook (LB) mannequin.

Judging from the outcomes, Dealer Joe’s efforts present a profitable case examine for different platforms that hope to achieve a foothold in the extremely aggressive DEX market.

The DEX preferences of energy users and new users are converging, however the distribution of energy users’ buying and selling actions continues to be extra dispersed.

Not like in 2023, the high three DEXs utilized by each energy users and new users are actually constant throughout each noticed chain. This implies that new users have gotten extra expert at mimicking the habits of skilled merchants, or that main DEXs have discovered extra environment friendly methods to optimize commerce paths.

Regardless of this, tremendous users’ buying and selling actions are nonetheless distributed throughout extra DEXs. In contrast with new users, they’re extra acquainted with a wider vary of DeFi protocols and are prepared to discover alternatives exterior of mainstream platforms akin to Uniswap in pursuit of increased returns or distinctive buying and selling situations.

Trying Forward: Alternatives and Challenges for Web3 in 2025

On-chain knowledge reveals that the number of Web3 users continued to develop in 2024, and conventional blockchains and rising opponents are additionally confronted with the problem of learn how to stand out in the market and supply engaging utility situations for new and previous users. As well as, the rise in the worth of native tokens on the chain has not considerably promoted diversified on-chain actions, and rising DeFi protocols have additionally encountered appreciable resistance when difficult present giants.

Listed here are some key developments to look at for by 2025:

Base turns into a benchmark for ecological enlargement

In 2024, Base’s explosive development has grow to be a mannequin for attracting and retaining new users, offering a reference for different new blockchains hoping to emerge. Base’s success in memecoin buying and selling and on-chain AI functions reveals that revolutionary use instances round scorching areas will proceed to drive person development in 2025. Nevertheless, learn how to convert these high-frequency buying and selling actions into extra sustained and numerous person engagement stays an essential problem.

Ethereum person development brings new alternatives for L2 chains

Though Ethereum’s second-layer community (L2) is mostly extra advantageous in efficiency, Ethereum nonetheless occupies a central place in the Web3 financial system with its giant person base and liquidity. L2 chains like Optimism could additional modify their methods to draw Ethereum’s rising number of peculiar users and information them to their very own on-chain ecosystems.

Differentiation or economies of scale are the key to success

Uniswap’s rising market dominance means that the DeFi market is displaying a “winner takes all” development. Nevertheless, chains akin to Avalanche and Polygon have demonstrated that it’s potential to achieve a big place in a particular market by way of focused innovation. For instance, Dealer Joe’s Auto-Swimming pools characteristic simplifies operations for liquidity suppliers, whereas Polygon’s GameFi challenge attracts a big number of players. Looking forward to 2025, protocols that may present differentiated on-chain companies and transcend conventional DeFi capabilities might be extra more likely to appeal to market consideration.

The shift from person amount to person high quality

As new users proceed to pour in, blockchain ecosystem builders want to search out methods to incentivize users to take part in additional numerous actions, akin to governance voting and staking, somewhat than simply buying and selling. As the number of wallets grows quickly, chains that prioritize person high quality and focus on numerous participation could have a bonus in the long-term wholesome improvement of the ecosystem.

5. Information-driven person high quality insights

What are Flipside Scores?

As 2025 approaches, the Web3 trade is dealing with an essential problem: learn how to distinguish short-term exercise from really sustainable development. Though the surge in new users and transaction quantity in 2024 brings an optimistic outlook for the trade, the key query is whether or not these users will keep for a very long time and contribute to the long-term improvement of the blockchain ecosystem. Flipside Scores is designed to unravel this downside.

Flipside Scores quantifies the high quality of person on-chain exercise by integrating 15 efficiency indicators protecting 5 classes. Not like easy indicators based mostly solely on transaction quantity, this strategy totally displays the breadth and depth of person exercise, revealing which ecosystems are performing nicely and the place there’s nonetheless room for enchancment.

Consumer high quality developments of completely different chains

Total, with the surge in the number of wallets and on-chain transactions in 2024, the high quality of users on every chain has declined. This phenomenon displays that the trade has attracted a big number of new users, who’re at the moment much less engaged however are anticipated to progressively discover the numerous use instances offered by Web3 in the future.

Listed here are some key findings:

• Base: One of the basic success tales in phrases of person development in 2024. Though the chain has a low person high quality rating, this doesn’t imply that Base is performing poorly total. On the opposite, it reveals that its giant new person base is at the moment concentrated in fewer on-chain actions, and Base nonetheless has enormous room for enchancment in the future by guiding these users to take part in additional numerous ecological actions.
• ETH: Earlier than the itemizing of a number of ETH ETFs authorised by the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC), the high quality of its users declined considerably. This reveals that though the entry of institutional funds can drive the speedy development of the number of wallets, if there’s a lack of enough incentive mechanisms and handy methods to take part (akin to protocol governance), the depth of users’ on-chain actions could also be troublesome to increase.
• Blast: It efficiently attracted users to actively take part in a number of on-chain actions in the early days of its launch, demonstrating its robust skill to incentivize gamification actions. Though Blast’s person development slowed in the fourth quarter of 2024, the remaining users remained energetic in a number of fields, indicating that the chain is anticipated to transcend the preliminary reputation and obtain long-term improvement.