2024 is a pivotal year for the growth of Web3 users, with the major public chains setting new records for user growth. Based on Flipside data, this article explores the trends in on-chain user growth and reveals how to achieve sustainable ecosystem participation amid short-term hype. This article is sourced from a Flipside report, compiled and translated by TechFlow.
(Background: Web3 Report: Emerging Markets Accelerate the Rise of Cryptocurrencies, Meme Coins Ignite Global Investment Fever)
(Supplementary Background: 2024 Global Crypto Developer Report: Total Developer Count Grows at an Annual Average of 39%, Asia Surpasses North America in Highest Share)
1. Introduction: Trends in On-Chain Users Towards 2025
2024 is a pivotal year for Web3 user growth, with the major public chains setting new records for both new users and super users. Chains like Base have redefined what exponential growth looks like, while Ethereum and its L2 solutions have demonstrated how entrenched ecosystems can adapt to evolving user demands.
However, a deeper dive into the data reveals that not all growth is created equal - highlighting the importance of focusing on quality, not just quantity, when assessing on-chain activity.
To this end, this report leverages Flipside's real-time 2024 on-chain crypto user data to evaluate this year's crypto activity not just through traditional performance metrics, but also through more actionable multi-variate indicators, providing a new way to assess the health of on-chain users in 2025.
Key Takeaways
Beneath the headlines of user growth lies a deeper challenge: how to build ecosystems that foster meaningful, sustained participation, rather than just fleeting speculation.
In short, most blockchains are still in the early stages of converting casual users into high-value contributors.
New User Acquisition:
Base: Set a record of 19.4 million new acquired users in October 2024, with Base contributing 13.7 million - nearly 8 times the second-place Polygon.
BTC: With BTC price hitting a new all-time high above $100,000, Bitcoin's monthly new acquired users grew by only an average of 935,900, suggesting widespread speculation among existing users rather than significant new user onboarding.
ETH: Reached a monthly average of 1.56 million new acquired users, outpacing Arbitrum and Optimism, with a 33.4% quarter-over-quarter user growth in March. Notably, Arbitrum saw an outstanding single-month peak of 3.3 million new acquired users in May.
Super User Trends:
Base: Attracted 15.1 million wallets with 100+ DeFi transactions, 38.4% more than Ethereum's 10.7 million super users.
ETH: 10.9 million DeFi-related super users exceeded the combined total of Arbitrum and Optimism (6.2 million and 1.8 million respectively), highlighting Ethereum's advantages in liquidity and accessibility.
Polygon: Added 1.5 million new super users in 2024 and recorded 867.7 million super user transactions this year, underscoring its success beyond DeFi applications.
DEX User Activity:
Uniswap: Expanded its dominance across major chains, capturing 91.3% of new acquired DEX activity on Base, and growing its market share on Ethereum by 27.72% compared to 2023.
While Uniswap saw growth, Trader Joe maintained its leading position on Avalanche with a 61.1% market share, up 6.1% from 2023.
Unlike 2023, the top 3 DEXes by new acquired users and super users were consistent across all observed chains in 2024.
2. New Acquired Users
New acquired users reached a monthly peak of 19.4 million in October 2024.
This year's on-chain user growth was led by Base, contributing 13.7 million new acquired users in that month - nearly 8 times the second-place Polygon. Overall, it has been an impressive year for the entire on-chain user growth industry. New acquired user numbers have maintained a consistent upward trend throughout 2024, with only a slight pullback in August.
Note: "New Acquired Users" are defined as users who have made at least 2 transactions on a chain, with the second transaction occurring in 2024.
This sustained growth may be influenced by increased institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by the series of BTC and ETH ETF announcements earlier this year.
Other exciting developments in the first half of 2024, such as Grayscale adding multiple new crypto assets to its "under consideration" list and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cutting US interest rates by 50 basis points in September 2024 - the first rate cut in four years - may have also contributed to this optimistic sentiment.
Base's Remarkable Growth
Base started 2024 slowly, but its monthly new acquired users have exploded 56-fold since January.
Base had only 244,700 new acquired users in January, but has experienced steady and significant growth throughout the year. By November, the chain's monthly new acquired users had grown 56-fold compared to January, with an average of 4.7 million new acquired users per month in 2024.
Here is the English translation of the text, with the terms in <> retained and not translated: The performance of this chain has greatly benefited from Coinbase's large user base, which collectively manages about $130 billion in assets. Popular DeFi protocols like may have also attracted users from other EVM chains, while has successfully driven user interest through meme coin trading and on-chain AI (such as new initiatives like ). Although the BTC price hit a new all-time high, it did not attract a large number of new users this year. The acquisition of new Bitcoin users remained relatively stable in 2024, despite a significant increase in BTC value. Overall, Bitcoin's average monthly user growth this year was 935,900, ranking third-to-last among the seven traditional public chains observed in this report. This indicates that the rise in Bitcoin's price is primarily driven by the enthusiasm and speculative activities of its existing user base, and the price growth has not been effective in attracting new users. In March 2024, the first major price surge of coincided with a 19.2% quarter-over-quarter increase in user acquisition, but in November - when reached the long-awaited $100,000 milestone during a sustained price increase - user acquisition actually decreased by 28.5% quarter-over-quarter. Ethereum's user acquisition has outperformed its traditional L2s overall, but has also seen impressive single-month growth. Ethereum's growth in 2024 exceeded its two leading L2 chains, with an average monthly user acquisition of 1.56 million, compared to 1.2 million for and 348,800 for . Excluding December, Ethereum only had four months of quarter-over-quarter declines, and reached a monthly peak of 1.9 million new users in March - a 33.4% quarter-over-quarter increase. and both started the year with quite strong momentum, reaching their 2024 user acquisition growth peaks in April and May respectively, after which user growth declined for the rest of the year.
However, it is worth noting that reached 3.3 million user acquisitions in May, exceeding Ethereum's any single-month peak in 2024. In this context, 's user acquisition growth has outpaced throughout the year, thanks to the success of its initiative and the integration and expansion of GameFi and SocialFi suites. With 169 builder grants approved in the first half of 2024, along with many behind-the-scenes advancements, it remains to be seen whether the chain can regain its position as the leading global EVM .
<2024 New Public Chain Performance>
Among the public chains launched in 2024, achieved the highest average user acquisition growth, while set a single-month record before gradually declining.
For the new public chains, in the launch months, had the highest user acquisition growth, averaging 175,200 new users per month, compared to 134,900 for and 90,700 for . This can be attributed to the sharp decline in user acquisition for starting from July, as well as the slow start of - although its was launched months ago, it only reached a quarterly peak of 324,500 users in October.
It remains unclear whether these public chains will regain growth momentum in 2025 - especially considering that also experienced a similar post-surge cooling period before its exponential growth in 2024. Among the four new public chains tracked, 's performance has been overshadowed by its competitors, and although set the highest monthly user acquisition growth among the new public chains in June, it still has a long way to catch up.
### 3. Super Users
As of December 2024, has the most DeFi-related super users, with 15.1 million wallets that have executed 100 or more transactions.
In addition to acquiring the most new users, has also attracted the largest number of DeFi-related super users, with 38.4% more wallets executing 100 or more transactions than the second-ranked Ethereum's 10.7 million new super users, followed by 
