a16z crypto report finds cryptocurrency activity and usage at all-time high

A study published Wednesday by a16z crypto, the web3 venture capital arm of the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, found crypto activity and usage are at an all-time high this year. 

The report estimated around 617 million global cryptocurrency owners, with up to 60 million monthly active users, as of September. Monthly active crypto addresses climbed above 220 million in 2024, with Base at the top for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains at 22 million addresses and Solana dominating non-EVM chains with over 100 million addresses. This year also saw the highest number of mobile wallet users, with the United States comprising 12% of global users. 

Additionally, Ethereum's Dencun upgrade and the inclusion of EIP-4844 in March of this year helped increase the ETH value on Layer 2s by 36%, with the percentage of Layer 2 payments of Layer 1 fees falling 94%, the report continues. 

"We appear to be at an inflection point for crypto infrastructure, which has rapidly advanced the scaling of blockchains and will unlock new possibilities for applications and user activity," a16z crypto Data Scientist Daren Matsuoka told The Block via email. "The steep decline in user transaction fees has helped stablecoins find product-market fit. We've also seen an emerging shift in behavior around NFTs that's very interesting, with more low-cost, social collecting and less activity in high-priced, speculative secondary markets."

Looking at crypto exchange-traded products, Bitcoin ETFs also saw consistent interest following their approval in the United States in January. Their cumulative volume reached $437.6 billion as of Oct. 15, The Block's Data Dashboard shows.