he number of active Ethereum addresses has more than doubled since the start of 2020. Ethereum's active address count is growing at nearly twice the rate of Bitcoin’s.
Data from the blockchain analytics website Messari shows that Ethereum’s active address count has increased by 118% since the turn of the year. Bitcoin’s active address count, by comparison, increased by 49%.
Ethereum’s DeFi boom
Why are more people turning to Ethereum than Bitcoin? One obvious answer—Ethereum is home to the top decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
The rise of DeFi apps on Ethereum drove the blockchain’s total number of unique addresses to over 100 million by early June. A July report from Dapp.com estimated that DeFi applications accounted for over 97% of all Dapp volume on Ethereum.
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The 100 million figure accounts for every unique address used in a transaction on Ethereum—both senders and recipients. This, obviously, doesn’t account for users who use multiple addresses, and so doesn’t entirely reflect the growth of Ethereum’s user base.
However, data from Bitinfocharts tracks transactions that go either from or to unique Ethereum addresses. Seen below, unique active Ethereum addresses rose 160% since January 1, climbing from 208,392, to 542,458 at time of writing.