The number of Bitcoin (BTC) owners surged by 33%, escalating from 222 million in January 2023 to 296 million in December 2023. Simultaneously, Ethereum (ETH) witnessed a 39% increase in ownership, rising from 89 million to 124 million over the same timeframe.

The worldwide community of cryptocurrency owners increased by 34%, advancing from 432 million to 580 million throughout 2023, a new report says.

According to the report by Crypto.com, Bitcoin and Ethereum played pivotal roles in driving adoption growth in 2023.

• The number of Bitcoin owners surged by 33%, escalating from 222 million in January 2023 to 296 million in December 2023.
• Simultaneously, Ethereum witnessed a 39% increase in ownership, rising from 89 million to 124 million over the same timeframe.

The report says:

“Crypto adoption in 2023 achieved new milestones, with the number of cryptocurrency owners reaching 580 million (December 2023) in spite of macro headwinds, namely the further monetary tightening by Western central banks to try to tame inflation, protracted kinetic conflict in Europe and a new one in the Middle East, and longer-term consequences of the pandemic.”

Bitcoin’s surge in April and May 2023 can be attributed to the momentum gained by Bitcoin Ordinals, a platform facilitating the creation of NFTs on the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin Ordinals have witnessed over 54 million inscriptions embedded in the Bitcoin network, and the cumulative inscription fees have surpassed 5,473 BTC (equivalent to $257 million) as of the current date.

In addition to the rise of BRC-20 tokens, the growth of BTC in Q4 2023 was influenced by heightened interest from institutional investors. This surge was propelled by the advancement of Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), further contributing to the notable expansion of Bitcoin during that period.

“April and May saw exceptionally strong monthly growth rates of 5.1% and 6.7%, respectively. This coincided with Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade on 12 April 2023,” the report says.

Liquid staking remained a prominent trend for Ethereum, particularly gaining traction following Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade. The growth in Ethereum adoption closely paralleled the changes observed in staked ETH, indicating a correlation between the two phenomena.

“When analysing the composition of cryptocurrency owners, we found that the shares of both BTC and ETH were flat due to the growth of the denominator (the total number of cryptocurrency owners). ETH’s adoption rate increased 0.7%, while Bitcoin dropped 0.4% during the year.”