Decentralized application activity on the Ethereum blockchain could be on track to match or surpass last year despite growing competition from “faster and cheaper” alternatives, according to blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.
Peak adoption on Ethereum was in 2021, coinciding with the height of the last bull run, and was also the year with the “highest number of unique wallets and the most transactions on Ethereum,” DappRadar analyst Sara Gherghelas said in the report published on Wednesday.
Activity cooled off after, but 2023 and 2024 saw consistent levels of engagement through renewed interest in non-fungible tokens (NFT), layer 2 ecosystems, and experimental DeFi protocols, according to Gherghelas.
This year “appears on track to match or even surpass 2024, suggesting that the current market momentum might be sustainable,” she added, explaining it “remains a cornerstone of Web3, especially in high-value sectors like DeFi and NFTs.”
Ethereum is a cornerstone of Web3: DappRadar
In the past decade that it has been tracking Ethereum, DappRadar said it has clocked over 234 million unique active wallets interacting with DApps on the network, driven by DeFi, followed by NFTs and gaming.
At the same time, it has tracked over 452 million DApp-related transactions on Ethereum, with DeFi leading, NFTs in second and gaming rounding out the top three.
“These numbers confirm its role not just as the first smart contract platform, but as the engine that continues to drive innovation and usage across the DApp ecosystem.”
Ethereum price could be on verge of breakout
Some analysts believe the Ether price is ready for a breakout based on futures open interest hitting a record high of $58 billion on Tuesday and network activity increasing by 7.2% over the last 30 days.
Meanwhile, others are slightly more cautious because the cost of borrowing wrapped Ether (wETH) has spiked, and technical indicators point to possible overvaluation.
The price has been moving between $3,530 and $3,933 in the last seven days and is up 5.8% in the same time frame to trade at $3,862, according to Nansen.
Ethereum treasury firms gobble up over 2.73 million Ether
More corporations have also begun acquiring the cryptocurrency as a treasury asset. There are currently 2.73 million Ether (ETH) held in 65 strategic reserves, representing 2.26% of the total supply, worth $10.56 billion, according to the Strategic Ether Reserves.
Related: Ethereum 2035: How the next 10 years might look
Strategic Ether Reserves shows BitMine as the largest Ether treasury firm, followed by SharpLink Gaming and then The Ether Machine.
David Grider, a partner at Venture capital firm Finality Capital, said in an X post on Monday that the Ether treasury company “boom should bode well for ETH flows and price action similar to the impact MicroStrategy had on Bitcoin.”
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