Cryptocurrencies have seen a meteoric rise in popularity and use of late. 2021 was an incredible year for crypto as many new investors got into the crypto market, and a massive bull run pushed the market even further. Ethereum, the second most valued crypto, saw an incredible rise in its holders. However, what is even more promising is the fact that small investors and holders saw an all-time high number recently. This is a big deal for the token, and crypto in general.
The number of wallets holding 0.1 to 1 ETH is at an all-time high. This clearly shows that Ethereum adoption is not only about the big players. The number of these addresses climbed by 98 % in a year, and they currently collectively own 1.78 million ETH, up 4.54 % in a month. Although big whales have a massive foothold in the market, a collective adoption is easily the way to go. And the data sure points to that being the direction taken.
According to Glassnode, the number of non-zero Ethereum addresses reached an awesome 74,890,784. On the other hand, the number of Ethereum addresses holding over 1000 ETH tokens, dropped to a 4-year low today (11th February 2022), reaching 6243. The previous 4-year low of 6245 was breached on the 26th of January, 2022. This data clearly shows that small investors are on the rise. This is a positive sign of true mass adoption.
Additionally, according to the data on Cryptoquant, on the 10th of February, we saw a massive increase in the number of purchases made for ETH. This exemplifies the buys in the market, with significant buy-side pressure. This similar pattern was previously seen on the 23rd of January, 2022. This is a multi-day record for Ethereum.
Why is Ethereum seeing such a large number of retail investors?
The Internet did not see widespread adoption when Tim Berners-Lee created the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It happened when search engines like Google, social networks like Facebook, and email systems like AOL were introduced.
Similarly, as we see the expansion of blockchain technology and projects, we will see a rise in the adoption of the same. Most of the dApps and other applications on the blockchain are built on the Ethereum ecosystem. Hence it comes as no surprise that, as blockchain technology is expanding, so is the number of Ethereum users and investors.
At the time of publication, Ethereum was trading at $3,103.08,