Posted on

Ethereum Surges Ahead Of Bitcoin In Active Addresses, What Does This Mean?

Since its inception, Ethereum has continuously been compared to Bitcoin with the former being hailed as a better option to the latter in some cases. As the years have flown by, the competition has gotten even fiercer, especially with ETH growing rapidly. Eventually, Ethereum seems to be catching up with Bitcoin, especially in terms of active addresses.

Ethereum Active Addresses Surpass Bitcoin

On Thursday, September 14, on-chain data tracker Santiment revealed a surprising update on the fierce rivalry between Bitcoin and Ethereum. In the X post, the tracker revealed that the number of unique addresses that were transaction on the network had reached its second-highest daily figure of all time.

While this is significant on the part of the blockchain alone, it is also significant in terms of the competition between the two largest assets in the space. To put this in perspective, the 1,089,893 figure reported by Santiment puts Ethereum ahead of Bitcoin in terms of this metric alone.

The last time that the daily unique active addresses on the network hit its new all-time high was back in December 2022. So it has been almost a year since the metric was this high, suggesting a unique driving factor behind it.

This report is also in line with the report from Artemis Terminal that shows that Ethereum was right in front of Bitcoin in terms of daily active addresses.

Ethereum active addresses bitcoin

Artemis reports that on September 13, Ethereum saw a total of 1.03 million daily addresses compared to Bitcoin’s 743,800 addresses in the same time period. However, this figure has since retracted and Bitcoin has pulled in front of Ethereum once more as of September 14.

What Does This Mean?

While Ethereum’s surge on Wednesday was impressive, it does not mean much since the network has been unable to sustain the growth. Also, the surge could be easily explained by the rise in the popularity of the Friend.Tech decentralized finance social media platform based on the Ethereum blockchain.

Friend.Tech had seemingly come back from the death to reach a new all-time high in its number of daily users. Since an ETH address is required to participate in the platform, it is no surprise there was an uptick in the number of ETH addresses active on the network.

The spike in the number of daily active addresses also seems to have had little impact on the price of the cryptocurrency itself. ETH’s price is still struggling to hold above $1,600, with small gains of 0.35% in the last day and losses of 1.15% in the last week.

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com (Bitcoin)

Posted on

Here’s How Long The Majority Of New Ethereum Wallets Are Used Before They’re Dumped

Ethereum is currently the leader in decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and smart contracts, and it continues to maintain its position as the dominant cryptocurrency in the altcoin market. This has led to Ethereum having the highest rate of creation of new addresses when compared to the other blockchains. However, data suggests most of these new addresses are dumped just after a few days. 

New Ethereum Wallets Are Used for Only a Short Time

Ethereum is second to Bitcoin in terms of unique addresses. Ycharts estimates put the number of unique addresses on the Ethereum network to around 239.62 million. However, on-chain transaction data shows that if you’ve just created a new Ethereum wallet, chances are you won’t be using it for long. 

According to crypto data analyst Jack Gorman, over 70% of new Ethereum wallets are used for less than 30 days before the owners stop transacting completely. While taking to a customized graph on Dune Analytics, a blockchain ecosystem analytics platform, the data analyst noted the rate of creation and abandonment of new Ethereum addresses.

The data show that Ethereum has one of the highest rates of new addresses, with 2 million new wallets per month. In the past year alone, more than 26.69 million wallets were created. However, most new addresses display minimal activity, with 66% only active for one day and 95.5% being active for less than ten days. For instance, in May 2023, 2.41 million addresses were created, with only 6.91% making transactions after 30 days. 

Ethereum (ETH) price chart from Tradingview.com

Overall, monthly active addresses total around 4.5 million to 7 million. This means that most wallets don’t last long, and only 1.9 million are active for more than 10 days. Fewer addresses are used frequently and long-term, with only 400,000 addresses completing more than 100 transactions in the past year.

Why Are There So ETH Addresses?

Ethereum has had one of the most impressive adoption rates in recent years. The creation of new addresses provides valuable insights into improving adoption and longevity, and the creation and abandonment of addresses can be traced to airdrop hunters. Airdrop hunters create multiple addresses with the sole aim of farming ERC-20 tokens from airdrops. 

While the retention rate of new wallets is really low, Ethereum is blessed with various holders, including smart contract addresses and centralized exchanges. The Eth2 Beacon Deposit Contract has the largest address, boasting more than 27.6 million ETH and a 22.9% stake in the network.

Posted on

Ethereum Nears Another Milestone Ahead Of Merge, Rally Incoming?

Ethereum has been hitting different milestones in the last year. However, with the announcement of a set date for the move to proof of stake, aka the ‘Merge,’ there has been a flurry of activity on the network, pushing it towards even more impressive records. This time around, the milestone has come in the form of the total number of unique active addresses on the network. 

Nearing 205 Million

The rate at which new unique and distinct Ethereum addresses are being added to the network has seen an incredible push. In just 2022 alone, there have been more than 21 million distinct addresses added to the network. The daily rate for growth is at almost 62,000 wallets.

Presently, the total number of distinct ETH addresses is sitting above 204.6 million. Going by the current daily rate, it will take less than one week for the total number of addresses on the Ethereum network to hit a new all-time high of 205 million. 

To put in perspective how significant this milestone is, 5 years ago, in 2017, there were only about 18.4 million distinct ETH addresses. This means that the number of ETH addresses has risen more than 1,000% in the last half a decade. 

ETH holds above $1,500 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

If the number of ETH distinct addresses continues to grow at the current rate, then this number will be at almost 220 million by the time 2022 draws to a close.

Another Rally For Ethereum?

When the date for the Ethereum Merge had first been announced, ETH had gone on an impressive bull rally that had seen its price touch $2,000. The hype had died down, and ETH’s price had fallen back to $1,500, but as the Merge draws closer than ever, the crypto market has turned its gaze to the altcoin.

The Ethereum Merge is now only less than two weeks away, and the price of ETH continues to hold steady even when declines rock the market. Activity has ramped up, leading one to believe that this renewed interest could trigger more demand for the digital asset.

It is also important to keep in mind that staking activity remains on the rise, and there are now more than 13.5 million ETH staked, accounting for about 12% of the total circulating supply. As more investors turn towards staking to earn rewards, the reduction in supply could lead to a short squeeze that could trigger a rally, if only for a short time.

If the Merge goes as expected, there is likely to be competition between the new POS ETH and the forked POW ETH. Such competition can trigger a rally, although it would be a volatile one. Nonetheless, the price of ETH may retest $2,000 by the time the Merge is completed. 

Featured image from CNBC, chart from TradingView.com

Follow Best Owie on Twitter for market insights, updates, and the occasional funny tweet…