The Ethereum ecosystem has seen nearly nine times the number of daily active users in the past four years, indicating a surge in demand that is projected to drive Ether (
ETH
) to unprecedented heights.
Data compiled by Bitwise, a crypto ETF issuer, reveals that in the first quarter of 2020, there were over 250,000 daily active users on Ethereum and its scaling solutions Arbitrum and Polygon, with the majority originating from the Ethereum layer-1 mainnet. Fast forward to the first quarter of 2024, and this number has skyrocketed to approximately 2.25 million daily users, a nearly nine-fold increase.
Source:
Bitwise
The introduction of layer-2 networks like Optimism, Base, and zkSync has significantly reduced Ethereum’s share of active daily users. On June 4, while Ethereum mainnet had 378,000 active users, Polygon boasted 1.3 million users, and the other four L2s collectively had around 1.5 million active users.
Optimism was introduced in late 2021, while zkSync mainnet and Base went live for public access in 2023. Although Ethereum’s user numbers may seem underwhelming, it aligns with the roadmap, with Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, prioritizing the use of L2s to scale the main blockchain. He believes that L2s mirror the sharding concept of the old Eth 2 plan and can stimulate growth in different “subcultures” within the Ethereum ecosystem.
VanEck, a crypto ETF issuer, has raised its price target for Ethereum, predicting the cryptocurrency to reach $22,000 by 2030. In a blog published on June 5, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, Matthew Sigel, and his team revised their 2030 Ether expectations, highlighting its revenue per user surpassing most Web2 businesses and foreseeing increased adoption by traditional financial market participants and Big Tech.
The analysts anticipate the approval of spot ether ETFs for trading on U.S. stock exchanges, enabling financial advisors and institutional investors to hold this unique asset and benefit from the advantages of ETFs in terms of pricing and liquidity.
Despite lower user numbers, Ethereum continues to outperform the top layer 2 networks and Solana combined in terms of fee generation, a fact acknowledged by Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams as a “modern miracle.” The L2s pay Ethereum fees to settle transactions on the main chain and leverage its security.
Source:
Ryan Sean Adams
At present, Ether is priced at $3,862, reflecting a 1.3% increase over the last 24 hours. Many anticipate that the launch of spot Ether ETFs will push the price of Ether to new record highs, although some caution that inflows into these new crypto ETFs may be considerably lower than those for Bitcoin ETFs.
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