Analysts found that the number of people owning ether increased from 89 million to 124 million, while the number of Bitcoin owners by the end of the year increased from 222 million to 296 million people. 40% of Bitcoin owners also own ETH, while 42% of cryptocurrency owners do not hold either Bitcoin or ETH in their portfolios.
The 34% increase in the number of users is associated with a prolonged bearish trend in the crypto market, the authors of the study are confident:
“Cryptocurrency adoption has grown for 2023 despite macroeconomic headwinds, including tightening monetary policy by Western central banks in an attempt to curb inflation, military conflicts including in the Middle East, and the long-term effects of the pandemic.”
The Ethereum Shanghai network update, which made it possible to remove ethers from staking, played an important role in increasing network activity and the growth of the ETH rate. Meanwhile, the emergence of BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain using the Ordinals protocol has increased demand for the network of the oldest cryptocurrency.
Great interest from institutional investors has contributed to the popularity of BTC. The number of Bitcoin addresses has also increased due to expectations surrounding the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States. Crypto.com analysts noted particularly strong demand for Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2023.
According to a recent Sygnum survey, more than 80% of institutional investors believe that cryptocurrencies play an important role in the global financial industry.
Source: Bits
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