- Despite crashing markets, crypto adoption rose sharply over the entire 2022, with owners jumping 39% in 2022: Crypto.com.
- Bitcoin (BTC) owners grew by 20% from 183M in January to 219M in December, accounting for 52% of global owners.
- Ethereum (ETH) owners grew by 263% from 24M in January to 87M in December, accounting for 20% of global owners.
A new report by Crypto.com has revealed that global crypto adoption increased sharply across the entire 2022, with cryptocurrency owners rising by 39% between 2021 and 2022. Resultantly, the total number of crypto owners hit 425 million at the end of 2022, compared to the 306 million recorded at the end of 2021. Given the overall bearish market in 2022, this was a remarkable positive development for the industry.
While the increase was extraordinary, the monthly growth rates between August and September were even more striking, recording 5% and 8.1%, respectively.
Bitcoin Owners Grew By 20% In 2022
The number of Bitcoin (BTC) owners increased from 183 million in January to 219 million in December, representing a 20% increase in 2022 alone.
In addition, the flagship crypto was the most owned asset, representing 52% of global crypto owners.
Moreover, the big crypto also witnessed its most significant growth in April, which is attributed to the Central African Republic of El Salvador deciding to legalize Bitcoin as a legal tender.
Ethereum Owners Grew By 263% in 2022
Regarding Ethereum (ETH), owners of the second largest crypto, grew by 263%. This came as the total ETH owners surged from 24 million in January to 87 million by the end of the year. Notably, Ethereum owners account for one-fifth (20%) of global crypto owners.
According to the report, “Ethereum’s monthly growth rates were higher than Bitcoin during the year except in April,” adding that ETH’s massive growth in May 2022 was likely driven by the NFT (non-fungible token) hype.
Besides the NFT-related hype, the report suggests that the primary influencer for Ethereum’s growth was the Merge event, where the Ethereum network transitioned from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) system to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS). However, while the transition was an important milestone for the web, it was later dubbed “sell the news” after the hype before it happened achieved more for the ETH token than the transition itself.
Institutional investors showing enthusiasm for Ethereum and the extensive use of liquid ETH staking further drove the adoption of the second-largest crypto by market cap.
Crypto Adoption Is Steadily Increasing: Crypto.com Report Says
From the Crypto.com report, it can be deduced that while 2022 was a disappointing year in monetary growth, crypto adoption continues to grow. The report also suggests that the industry’s growth will continue over time.
The above report was based on Crypto.com’s on-chain market sizing estimates, which combined on-chain data with blended parameters to determine the approximate number of global crypto owners. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek commented on the findings from the study, saying:
“While this past year had profound market challenges, the significant growth in cryptocurrency owners demonstrates crypto is here to stay. We are also extremely proud of the continued growth of the Crypto.com community, and we remain focused on building and driving mainstream adoption in the year ahead.”
Crypto.com has progressively expanded its user base, a move supported by increased brand visibility during the recent FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. As it stands, Crypto.com has over 80 million users worldwide, and its continued growth attributes to the company’s momentum as an industry leader in compliance, security, and privacy.
At the time of writing, the global crypto market cap stood at $977.31 billion after gaining around 0.85% in the last 24 hours. The total crypto market volume over the previous 24 hours is $40.59B, which makes a 31.67% decrease. If the current trend proves sustainable across 2023, investors in the crypto industry could enjoy a bullish period.
