In H1 2024, the daily number of addresses connecting to the Ethereum network and the six major Ethereum Layer 2 protocols increased by 127%. The catalyst for the increase in user activity is the growth of the L2 ecosystem.
According to a report by Coinbase Institutional and Glassnode, user activity in the Ethereum ecosystem grew significantly in 2024. The combined number of daily active addresses on the mainnet and six L2 protocols grew 127% since the beginning of the year.
The growth of user activity in the Ethereum ecosystem is triggered by the development of Layer 2 protocols such as Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync Era, Base, Linea, and Blast. According to Growthepie, the L2 protocols Base and Linea were the growth leaders this year, with the number of daily active addresses increasing by 9,999% and 2,880%, respectively, over the year. Combined, these two blockchains serve about 1.3 million daily users.
The report also notes that the growth in the number of L2 protocol users far surpassed that of the Ethereum mainnet. The total number of transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem increased by 59% in Q2 2024, with the bulk of the transaction occurring through Layer 2 protocols. Despite the increase in the number of transactions, the total transaction fees in the Ethereum network decreased by 58% due to the Dencun hard fork.
Analysts also said that the activity of users of the Bitcoin blockchain in Q2 2024 decreased. Thus, 20% fewer users connected to the Bitcoin network in this period daily, and the total number of active addresses on the network decreased by 16%, compared to Q1.
Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Ethereum, proposed to strengthen the ecosystem of the largest altcoin by creating a single protocol for interaction between L2 networks, the capitalization of which by 2030 may exceed $1 trillion.
