Key points:
- The number of active addresses in Ethereum is growing at a faster rate than Bitcoin.
- This is largely due to DeFi dapp.
- …And the Ponzi scheme.
Since the beginning of 2020, the number of active Ethereum addresses has more than doubled. Ethereum’s number of active addresses has grown almost twice that of Bitcoin.
Data from the blockchain analysis website Messari shows that since the beginning of this year, the number of valid addresses in Ethereum has increased by 118%. In contrast, the number of valid addresses in Bitcoin has increased by 49%.
Ethereum’s unique active address growth greatly surpassed Bitcoin in 2020. Image: Messari
Ethereum’s DeFi boom
Why are there more people turning to Ethereum than Bitcoin? An obvious answer-Ethereum is home to the top decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
By early June, the rise of the DeFi application on Ethereum brought the total number of unique addresses on the Ethereum blockchain to more than 100 million. Dapp.com estimated in a July report that DeFi applications accounted for more than 97% of all Ethereum Dapps.
The number 100 million represents each unique address used in Ethereum transactions, including the sender and receiver. Obviously, this does not reflect the users who use multiple addresses, so it cannot fully reflect the growth of the Ethereum user base.
However, data from Bitinfocharts tracks transactions from unique Ethereum addresses. As shown below, since January 1, active Ethereum addresses have increased by 160%, from 208,392 to 542,458.
More conservative data from Bitinfocharts also shows that ETH addresses are growing rapidly. Image: Bitinfocharts
At the same time, the number of Bitcoin’s unique valid addresses has also increased by 42%, from 585,047 on January 1 to 832,751 on July 10. This is very consistent with Messari’s data and proves that Ethereum is currently experiencing a surge in interest and activity.
Securities and Ponzi schemes squeeze Ethereum network resources
However, although the rise of DeFi has undoubtedly contributed to the proliferation of unique Ethereum addresses, another Dapp based on Ethereum may also play an important role.
As Decrypt reported on July 5, according to the number of users, the most popular Dapp Forsage accounts for nearly 13% of Ethereum’s gas consumption. Gas is the “fuel” that runs Ethereum and is used to measure the price of performing calculations on the network.
This means that Forsage (which the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission condemned as unregistered securities) is taking up 13% of the entire Ethereum blockchain. The emergence of the Russian PMM scam (MMM Global) has also contributed to the hoarding of Ethereum’s computing power. These operations usually see funds transferred from one address to another, thereby increasing the total number of unique addresses in Ethereum.
According to data from Dune Analytics, today, Forsage accounts for 12.5% of Ethereum’s gas usage, and ETH Gas Station sets this figure at 15.8%.
Either way, Ethereum researcher and developer Philippe Castonguay told Decrypt that it is “inevitable and unstoppable,” and should also account for the Ponzi scheme when considering the increase in Ethereum usage.