The growth of ethereum has been a steady one since it was first launched in 20215. Adoption of the digital asset has been on an uptrend, but the year 2021 saw a remarkable uptick of users who are invested in ethereum. The cryptocurrency boasts one of the highest numbers of investors around the globe and now it has set another record as the number of wallets holding some ETH crosses 71 million.
Ethereum Breaks 71 Million Wallets
Glassnode recently reported that the number of wallets that hold ethereum on their balances has set a new record. It noted that these wallets without a non-zero balance had continued to grow throughout the year 2021 and have seen a surge of over 30% from their previous high from 2020. There are now currently 71,364,788 wallets that have a balance higher than zero.
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Around the same time last year, Ethereum had set a similar record where the number of non-zero ETH addresses had climbed above 51 million. This was a significant milestone for the network as it indicated heavy adoption coming in from the market at a time when the bull run was only taking its first steps. In the space of a year, Ethereum had seen over 20 million new non-zero addresses added to this tally.
ETH non-zero addresses passes 71 million | Source: Glassnode
Now, it is important to note that the report does not give a minimum address balance which was factored into this. Hence, it is safe to assume that wallets that hold slightly above zero ETH but not a significant amount by any measure were also counted to arrive at this number.
For example, a wallet could hold 0.000001 ETH and still make it into the count but don’t quote us on that.
What’s Causing The Rise?
The rallies that saw ethereum hit multiple new all-time highs have been an obvious factor in the increased adoption of ETH. However, there are other factors that have driven investors to invest in the altcoin. The emergence of new spaces such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs have no doubt played a big role in this.
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With decentralized finance, crypto users are able to take advantage of financial opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to. Borrowing is an example of this. So instead of going through the rigorous process of applying for a loan with a bank, crypto investors can easily get the funds they need within minutes by going through a DeFi lending protocol.
ETH trading north of $3,600 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
NFTs, in their own way, has also given users a level of financial freedom. Mostly, though, it has been content creators who have mostly benefitted from this market. Creatives who would usually have to go through a broker to get their art seen and sold are able to easily mint and sell their art online, receiving all the proceeds from the sale directly to their wallets.
These and more, like the anticipated growth of the ethereum network in the future, have been behind the massive adoption of the blockchain, as well as investors purchasing and holding ETH in their wallets.
Featured image from Ethereum World News, charts from Glassnode and TradingView.com