According to a report published by Crypto.com, by the end of 2023, the total number of crypto users increased by 34%, from 432 million to 580 million.
The highest growth rates occurred in April (5.1%) and May (6.7%), respectively, coinciding with the activation of the Shapella hard fork on the Ethereum blockchain, the document says.
The company's analysts have said Bitcoin and Ethereum are the leaders in terms of adoption growth. In particular, the number of BTC owners increased by 33% (from 222 million to 296 million), and Ethereum by 39% (from 89 million to 124 million).
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The growth in BTC adoption can be attributed to the interest in Ordinals and the BRC-20 standard, as well as by the anticipated launch of spot ETFs based on the asset.
The paper states:
"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."