2024 On-chain User Report: The number of new monthly users reached 19.4 million, with Base chain contributing nearly 70% of the increase

Author: flipside

Compiled by: Xiaobai Navigation coderworld

1. Introduction

On-chain user trends towards 2025

2024 is a turning point for Web3 user growth, with the number of new users and super users on major public chains hitting record highs. Public chains like Base have redefined what exponential growth is, and Ethereum and its L2 Solutions demonstrate how well-established ecosystems can adapt to evolving user needs.

However, digging deeper into the data reveals that not all growth is equal — highlighting the importance of focusing not just on quantity but also quality when evaluating on-chain activity.

To this end, this report is based on Flipside's real-time on-chain encrypted user data in 2024In addition to traditional performance indicators, more actionable multivariate indicators are used to evaluate this year'scryptocurrencyactivity, providing a new way to assess the health of on-chain users in 2025.

Brief summary

• Behind the news of user growth lies a deeper challenge: how to build ecosystems that create meaningful, lasting engagement, not just short-lived speculative play.

• In short, mostBlockchainWe are still in the early stages of converting average users into high-value contributors.

Get user information:

• Base:In October 2024, a record of 19.4 million newly acquired users was set, of which Base contributed 13.7 million users - almost 8 times that of the second-place Polygon.

• BTC:BTC price hit a record high of over $100,000, and the average monthly increase in Bitcoin users was only 935,900, indicating widespread speculation among existing users rather than a significant entry of new users.

• ETH:The average monthly user acquisition reached 1.56 million, surpassing Arbitrum and Optimism, and the month-on-month user growth in March reached 33.4%. It is worth noting that Arbitrum hit an outstanding peak of 3.3 million monthly users in May.

Super user situation:

• Base:Attracted 15.1 million users who have executed 100+ DeFi transactionswallet, 38.4% more than the second-ranked Ethereum’s 10.7 million super users.

• ETH:The number of DeFi-related super users of 10.9 million exceeds the total of Arbitrum and Optimism (6.2 million and 1.8 million, respectively), highlighting Ethereum’s advantages in liquidity and convenience.

• Polygon:It added 1.5 million super users in 2024 and recorded 867.7 million super user transactions this year, highlighting its success in application areas beyond DeFi.

DEX usage:

• Uniswap:It expanded its dominance on major public chains, accounting for 91.3% of new user DEX activity on Base and increased its market share on Ethereum by 27.72% compared to 2023.

• Despite Uniswap’s growth,Trader Joe It still maintains its leading position in Avalanche with a market share of 61.1%, an increase of 6.1% compared to 2023.

• Unlike 2023, in 2024 the top three DEX rankings for acquiring users and super users across all observed public chains now remain consistent.

2. Newly acquired users

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

This year’s on-chain user growth was led by Base, which contributed 13.7 million new users that month — almost eight times the number of second-place Polygon.Xiaobai NavigationThis was an impressive year for the industry in terms of user growth. User acquisition continued to rise throughout 2024, with only a small pullback in August.

Note:Get User The definition of is a user who has made at least 2 transactions on a chain, the second of which occurred in 2024.

This continued growth may be driven by institutionalcryptocurrencyThe impact of increased acceptance is reflected in the slew of BTC and ETH ETFs announced earlier this year.

Other exciting developments in the first half of 2024 may also have fueled this optimism, such as Grayscale listing multiple new cryptocurrencies as “assets under consideration” and the Federal Reserve cutting U.S. interest rates by 50 basis points during the September 2024 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting — the first rate cut in four years.

Base's Astonishing Growth

Base had a slow start in 2024, but since January, its monthly new user acquisitions have skyrocketed 56 times.

Base had only 244,700 acquired users in January, but experienced steady and significant growth throughout the year. At its peak in November, the chain’s monthly user acquisitions had grown 56 times compared to January, averaging 4.7 million new acquired users per month during 2024.

The chain’s performance has benefited greatly from Coinbase’s massive user base, which collectively manages about $130 billion in assets. Popular DeFi protocols like Aerodrome may have also attracted users from other EVM chains, while Base has also gained popularity through memecoin transactions and on-chain AIHot areas such as new initiatives such as Based Agents have successfully driven user interest.

Bitcoin Performance

Despite record highs in BTC prices, it has not attracted a large number of new users this year.

Bitcoin's new user acquisition remains relatively stable in 2024, despite the significant appreciation of BTC's value. Overall, Bitcoin's average monthly user acquisition growth this year is 935,900, ranking third from the bottom among the seven traditional public chains observed in this report.

This suggests that Bitcoin’s price appreciation is primarily driven by enthusiasm and speculation from its existing user base, while BTC price growth has had mixed results in attracting new users.

In March 2024, BTC’s first major price surge coincided with a month-over-month growth in user acquisition of 19.2%, but in November — when BTC reached the long-awaited $100,000 milestone during an ongoing price rally — user acquisition actually fell by 28.5% month-over-month.

Ethereum and L2 Performance

以太坊的获取用户总体上超过了其传统 L2，但 Arbitrum 也出现了令人印象深刻的单月增长。

Ethereum outperformed its two leading L2 chains in 2024, gaining an average of 1.56 million users per month, compared to 1.2 million for Arbitrum and 348,800 for Optimism. Excluding December, Ethereum only saw a month-on-month decline in four months, reaching a monthly peak of 1.9 million new users in March - a month-on-month increase of 33.4%.

Both Arbitrum and Optimism started the year fairly strongly, reaching their peak 2024 acquisition user growth in April and May, respectively, before declining user growth for the rest of the year.

It is worth noting, however, that Arbitrum’s 3.3 million acquisitions in May exceeded any monthly peak achieved by Ethereum in 2024. In this context, Arbitrum’s acquisition growth continued to outpace Optimism throughout the year, thanks to the success of its Arbitrum One program and the integration expansion of GameFi and SocialFi. With 169 builder grants approved in the first half of 2024, coupled with many behind-the-scenes developments, it remains to be seen whether the chain can reclaim its position as the world’s leading EVM L2 chain.

Performance of new public chains in 2024

Among the public chains launched in 2024, Aleo achieved the highest average growth in user acquisition, while Blast set a single-month record before gradually fading.

In terms of newly launched public chains, Aleo had the highest growth in user acquisition in the month of launch, reaching an average of 175,200 users per month, compared to 134,900 for Blast and 90,700 for Aleo. This can be attributed to the sharp decline in user acquisition for Blast from July onwards, and the slow start for Sei, which did not reach its month-on-month peak of 324,500 users until October, despite its mainnet being launched several months ago.

It’s unclear whether these chains will be able to regain momentum in 2025 — especially considering that Base experienced a similar post-launch cool-off before surging in 2024. Of the four new chains tracked, Lava has been overshadowed by its competitors so far, and while Blast posted the highest monthly user acquisition growth of any new chain in June, it still has a lot of catching up to do.

3. Super User

As of December 2024, Base has the most DeFi-related super users, with 15.1 millionwallet100 or more trades were executed.

In addition to gaining the most new users, Base also attracted the largest number of DeFi-related super users, with 38.4% more users performing 100 transactions or more than second-place Ethereum, followed by Ethereum with 10.7 million new super users and Polygon with 7 million.

Note:"Super User" 的定义是在某条链上执行过至少 100 次交易的用户，不考虑相关wallet的创建时间或最后一次交易发生的时间。

Considering Base’s explosive growth this year, its impressive number of super users may not be surprising. This success is likely due to Base surpassing many traditional public chains in multiple hot areas this year, including but not limited to meme coins and NFT transactions.

At the other end of the spectrum, Avalanche and Blast have seen similar numbers of superusers this year, averaging around 1.3 million, while Optimism fared slightly better with 1.7 million users making at least 100 DeFi transactions.

Polygon’s Prominence

Polygon added the most super users this year and continues to stand out in terms of non-DeFi related super user activity.

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

• Polygon’s superuser activity also surpasses all other observed public chains, with an average of 867.7 million superuser transactions per month this year. In addition to Base’s impressive 786.3 million superuser transactions, Arbitrum has also performed strongly so far in 2024, reaching 365.3 million superuser transactions.

Polygon’s outperformance continues its long-standing leadership in super user activity from 2021. In 2021, Polygon’s transaction volume reached 1.14 billion, setting a record for allBlockchainIt set the highest record of super user activity in the world and remains so to this day.

However, although Polygon has the highest super user activity among all blockchains, its number of DeFi (decentralized finance)-related super user wallets ranks only third. This shows that Polygon has successfully attracted a large number of high-frequency trading users through GameFi (chain game finance) and other application scenarios, rather than relying solely on DeFi applications.

Ethereum has more super users in the DeFi space than Arbitrum and Optimism combined.

As of 2024, Ethereum's super users in the DeFi field have reached 10.9 million, second only to Base. This number is much higher than the sum of Arbitrum (6.2 million) and Optimism (1.8 million).

While EVM L2 (Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible second-layer network) generally has faster speeds and lower transaction costs, many users may still find cross-chain bridging assets too complicated or risky, or prefer to use the Ethereum mainnet due to its deeper liquidity and more mature market position.

However, Ethereum’s second-layer network needs to further explore ways to attract users rather than relying solely on its performance advantages over the Ethereum mainnet to attract on-chain activities.

4. DEX users

Uniswap continues to expand its market share on major blockchains, further consolidating its position as a decentralizedexchange (DEX) sector.

Among all observed chains, Uniswap is still the undisputed number one, with the exception of Avalanche and Blast chains. Especially on the Base chain, Uniswap's user share soared from 36.8% to 91.3%. Considering the exponential growth of Base chain users this year, this result is particularly outstanding.

Similarly, Uniswap's performance on other major chains has also improved. Compared with 2023, its share of DEX activity on Ethereum increased by 27.72%, while it increased by 12.57% on Polygon. It is worth mentioning that Polygon's DEX activity has always been more dispersed, and its user base has more diverse trading behaviors than other leading chains.

Even without considering Uniswap’s protocol upgrade, this phenomenon may reflect the “winner takes all” trend in the DeFi field, where larger platforms occupy a larger market share due to their deep liquidity and brand awareness.

On Avalanche, Trader Joe’s further solidified its lead, while Uniswap also moved up the rankings.

Uniswap is now the second most popular DEX on Avalanche, and in 2023, it was not even in the top five. However, Trader Joe's is still the most popular DEX on Avalanche, accounting for 61.1% of the market share, and its market share has increased by about 6% since 2023.

As the first major DEX built natively on Avalanche, Trader Joe has been committed to maintaining and expanding its market leadership. The Auto-Pools feature launched in April this year makes it easier for liquidity providers (LPs) to automatically adjust positions and compound returns. In addition, the platform also supports liquidity pledges for multiple Avalanche assets and actively expands to new chains such as Arbitrum and BNB Chain, verifying the feasibility of its unique liquidity book (LB) model.

Judging from the results, Trader Joe's efforts provide a successful case study for other platforms that hope to gain a foothold in the highly competitive DEX market.

The DEX preferences of power users and new users are converging, but the distribution of power users’ trading activities is still more dispersed.

Unlike in 2023, the top three DEXs used by both power users and new users are now consistent across every observed chain. This suggests that new users are becoming more skilled at mimicking the behavior of experienced traders, or that leading DEXs have found more efficient ways to optimize trade paths.

Despite this, super users’ trading activities are still distributed across more DEXs. Compared with new users, they are more familiar with a wider range of DeFi protocols and are willing to explore opportunities outside of mainstream platforms such as Uniswap in pursuit of higher returns or unique trading conditions.

Looking Ahead: Opportunities and Challenges for Web3 in 2025

On-chain data shows that the number of Web3 users continued to grow in 2024, and traditional blockchains and emerging competitors are also facing the challenge of how to stand out in the market and provide attractive application scenarios for new and old users.TokenThe price increase has not significantly driven diverse on-chain activities, and emerging DeFi protocols have encountered considerable resistance in challenging existing giants.

Here are some key trends to watch for by 2025:

1. Base becomes a benchmark for ecological expansion

In 2024, Base’s explosive growth has become a model for attracting and retaining new users, which provides a reference for other new blockchains that hope to stand out. Base in memecoin transactions and on-chain AI The success of these applications suggests that innovative use cases around popular areas will continue to drive user growth in 2025. However, how to convert these high-frequency trading activities into more sustained and diverse user engagement remains an important challenge.

2. Ethereum user growth brings new opportunities for L2 chains

Although Ethereum's second-layer network (L2) is generally more advantageous in performance, Ethereum still occupies a central position in the Web3 economy with its large user base and liquidity. L2 chains like Optimism may further adjust their strategies to attract Ethereum's growing number of ordinary users and guide them to their own on-chain ecosystems.

3. Differentiation or economies of scale are the key to success

Uniswap’s growing market dominance suggests that the DeFi market is showing a “winner takes all” trend. However, chains such as Avalanche and Polygon have demonstrated that it is possible to gain a significant position in a specific market through targeted innovation. For example, Trader Joe’s Auto-Pools feature simplifies operations for liquidity providers, while Polygon’s GameFi project attracts a large number of gamers. Looking ahead to 2025, protocols that can provide differentiated on-chain services and go beyond traditional DeFi functions will be more likely to attract market attention.

4. The shift from user quantity to user quality

As new users continue to pour in, blockchain ecosystem builders need to find ways to incentivize users to participate in more diverse activities, such as governance voting and staking, rather than just trading. As the number of wallets grows rapidly, chains that prioritize user quality and focus on diverse participation will have an advantage in the long-term healthy development of the ecosystem.

5. Data-driven user quality insights

What are Flipside Scores?

As 2025 approaches, the Web3 industry is facing an important challenge: how to distinguish short-term activity from truly sustainable growth. Although the surge in new users and transaction volume in 2024 brings an optimistic outlook for the industry, the key question is whether these users will stay for a long time and contribute to the long-term development of the blockchain ecosystem. Flipside Scores is designed to solve this problem.

Flipside Scores quantifies the quality of user on-chain activity by integrating 15 performance indicators covering five categories. Unlike simple indicators based solely on transaction volume, this approach fully reflects the breadth and depth of user activity, revealing which ecosystems are performing well and where there is still room for improvement.

User quality trends of different chains

Overall, with the surge in the number of wallets and on-chain transactions in 2024, the quality of users on each chain has declined. This phenomenon reflects that the industry has attracted a large number of new users, who are currently less engaged but are expected to gradually explore the diverse use cases provided by Web3 in the future.

Here are some key findings:

• Base:One of the classic success stories in terms of user growth in 2024. Although the chain has a low user quality score, this does not mean that Base is performing poorly overall. On the contrary, it shows that its huge new user base is currently concentrated in fewer on-chain activities, and Base still has huge room for improvement in the future by guiding these users to participate in more diverse ecological activities.

• ETH:Before the listing of multiple ETH ETFs approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the quality of their users declined significantly. This shows that although the entry of institutional funds can drive the rapid growth of the number of wallets, if there is a lack of sufficient incentive mechanisms and convenient ways to participate (such as protocol governance), the depth of users' on-chain activities may be difficult to increase.

• Blast:In the early days of its launch, it successfully attracted users to actively participate in multiple on-chain activities, demonstrating its strong ability to incentivize gamification activities. Although Blast's user growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2024, the remaining users remained active in multiple fields, indicating that the chain is expected to go beyond the initial popularity and achieve long-term development.

The article comes from the Internet:2024 On-chain User Report: The number of new monthly users reached 19.4 million, with Base chain contributing nearly 70% of the increase

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