18.36 million Ethereum addresses will join the network in 2021

New data shows that the Ethereum network gained 18.36 million addresses with balances greater than zero in 2021. This represents an impressive growth rate of 1.53 million new addresses per month, but the competition for market share is becoming increasingly fierce.

Blockchain intelligence firm IntoTheBlock shared its findings on Ethereum in a Feb. 15 tweet.

Although the price of Ethereum (ETH) hit two new all-time highs in 2021, the rate of growth of new addresses has not been particularly correlated with the price surge. Since October, the ethereum network has acquired around 10 million addresses.

Although the overall number has increased, the proportion of active addresses on the network has decreased. Overall, active addresses accounted for 1.05% of all addresses on January 1, 2021, peaked at 1.66% on April 25, but had fallen to 0.86% as of February 15.

The number of whales holding more than 1,000 ETH has also declined since the beginning of 2021. On-chain analytics firm Glassnode reported on Feb. 13 that whale wallets had reached a four-year low of 6,226.

Since mid-December, average daily transaction volume has stagnated at around 1.2 million, according to ethereum statistics aggregator Ycharts. High gas fees and cheaper and often faster alternatives in the form of sidechains and layer 2 solutions on Ethereum may be factors. Sameep Singhania pointed to this as one reason he chose to build Quickswap on Polygon.

Following a surge in usage last May, the average daily transaction volume on the Polygon (MATIC) sidechain is more than twice that of Ethereum. Polygon currently processes about 3 million transactions per day.

Ethereum remains the leading smart contract platform in the ecosystem by Total Value Locked (TVL). On-chain statistics platform Defi Llama shows that Ethereum currently has a TVL of $124.24 billion, far exceeding the $15.04 billion of runner-up Terra (LUNA).