Ethereum (ETH) owners grew by 263% from 24 million in January to 87 million in December, accounting for 20% of global owners.
Crypto.com has published its Crypto Market Sizing Report 2022, which provides insights into the actual dynamics within the digital asset market.
The key takeaway of the report is that global crypto owners increased by 39% in 2022, rising from 306 million in January to 425 million in December in spite of macro headwinds, namely high inflation, the conflict in Europe, supply chain disruptions, and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As to the top crypto assets in the market:
- Bitcoin (BTC) owners grew by 20% from 183 million in January to 219 million in December, accounting for 52% of global owners;
- Ethereum (ETH) owners grew by 263% from 24 million in January to 87 million in December, accounting for 20% of global owners.
For Bitcoin, the strongest growth in 2022 happened in April when the Central African Republic became the second country to adopt BTC as legal tender after EI Salvador and Goldman Sachs offered its first BTC-backed loan, showing further signs of increased interest in crypto from Wall Street institutions.
Crypto.com further explained that the main catalyst behind Ethereum’s high adoption growth rate – ETH owners grew by 263% vs BTC owners that grew by 20% – was The Merge: a highly anticipated event that marked the completion of the network’s transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.
Ethereum’s rising adoption in 2022 was also due to interest from institutional investors and the popularity of ETH liquid staking.
