Ethereum (ETH) Has Seen Its Holder Count Go Up By 3.3% In Last Three Months

On-chain data shows Ethereum has notably outpaced Bitcoin in terms of adoption during the last three months, a sign that could be positive for ETH.

On-chain data reveals that Ethereum has far outpaced Bitcoin in terms of adoption over the past three months, a development that could bode well for ETH.

Ethereum Holder Count Increased By 3.3% In Last Three Months

As per data from the on-chain analytics firm Santiment, Ethereum has continued to separate itself from Bitcoin in its growth of the Total Amount of Holders metric. The Total Amount of Holders here refers to an indicator that, as its name suggests, keeps track of the total number of addresses on a given network that are carrying some non-zero balance.

When the value of this metric goes up, it means new addresses with a balance are popping up on the blockchain. Such a trend may arise when new investors join the market and old ones who had sold earlier reinvest.

The indicator also registers an increase when existing investors divide their holdings into multiple wallets, perhaps as a measure of privacy. In general, all three of these are at play whenever the metric rises, so some net adoption can be assumed to be taking place, which can be bullish for the asset.

On the other hand, the indicator going down implies some holders have decided to clear out their wallets, potentially to completely get away from the cryptocurrency at least in the short term.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Total Amount of Holders for the top three coins in the sector, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT), over the past few years:

As you can see in the graph above, the Total Amount of Holders for Ethereum has been riding an uptrend during the last few years, with this momentum continuing in the last three months as 4 million more holders have shown up on the network.

In contrast to ETH’s growth, BTC’s Total Amount of Holders has almost shown a sideways trajectory since 2021. In the last three months, the number one cryptocurrency has actually outright seen a decline in its user base, with 50,000 addresses emptying themselves out.

Following the latest increase, Ethereum now boasts almost 127 million holders, while the metric stands at just 54 million for Bitcoin, implying that the latter doesn’t even have half as many holders as the former.

The number one stablecoin, USDT, currently has 6 million addresses holding a balance, which represents an increase of around 230,000 compared to three months ago.

BTC’s Total Amount of Holders Trend May Hint At Adoption Slowdown

While both Ethereum and Tether have continued to show growth in their user bases, Bitcoin has hit a roadblock in this regard. This development could be taken as an indication that ETH and USDT are managing to outcompete BTC in terms of attracting new money.

This development may not come as a surprise to many, considering the fact that both Ethereum and Tether are used extensively in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) sectors, which have continued to grow throughout 2023.

On the other hand, Bitcoin has been largely left out of these trends, as it’s primarily used as a store of value and a medium of exchange in the crypto space. As a result, while BTC may be continuing to perform well in these roles, it’s clear that the DeFi and CeFi booms are helping other coins outpace it in terms of adoption.

ETH Price At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at around $2,394, down more than 4% over the last 24 hours.