Massive Crypto Adoption In 2022
While the majority of the crypto community may be cursing the past year for many reasons. However, the year 2022 was also astonishing in terms of crypto for a variety of reasons, especially with regard to crypto adoption.
A report called “Crypto Market Sizing” was recently compiled and made public by a popular crypto trading platform namely Crypto.com.
Bitcoin.com explained firstly that the report was based specifically upon statistics, surveys, and on-chain analysis concerning Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In the report, Bitcoin.com notes that though ‘macro headwinds’ remained throughout 2022, the growth of the crypto industry was phenomenal.
For instance, Bitcoin.com acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic was there, inflation and interest rates were constantly rising and Russia waged war upon Ukraine.
However, despite these anomalies, the crypto industry was able to achieve fresh milestones. The industry has continued growing larger and things have become quite favorable for the industry.
In 2022, the global population of crypto owners has increased by a whooping percentage of 39% alone which is the latest milestone.
Global Crypto Population Now
On the last day of 2021, the global population of crypto owners was resting at 306 million. However, the 39% swelled-up population is now exceeding 425 million, notes Bitcoin.com in the Crypto Market Sizing report.
This goes to show that despite the downturns, the industry has continued growing. More investors have continued adding themselves to the industry as they hope it will recover significantly in the near future.
Most interestingly, Bitcoin.com’s report also took into account the growth of lead cryptocurrency owners.
For instance, the report highlights that since 2021, the number of Bitcoin owners globally has increased by 20% till the end of 2022.
Since the beginning of 2023, the cryptocurrency market has become quite favorable for investors. The sector has become bullish and it is expected that the adoption level of crypto would surge enormously in 2023.
As of now, the global population of Bitcoin holders is comprised of over 219 million which was 183 million at the end of 2021.
Similarly, with regard to Ethereum, the report suggests that the owners of Ethereum have surged phenomenally by 263%.
At the end of 2021, Ethereum owners were less than 24 million and now they comprise over 87 million.
Boost in Bitcoin Owners
The report further notes that the major increase in Bitcoin owners started after April 2022. The report claims that the surge came when the Central African Republic also issued a legal tender to Bitcoin as did El Salvador.
In the same month, further impetus was provided by Goldman Sachs which launched BTC-based crypto loans.
Thereafter, when Bitcoin’s value was reduced by more than 80% in 2022, mass-scale Bitcoin acquisition was seen.
Investors were hoping that Bitcoin’s value decline was an opportunity that would return them huge profits in long term.
Ethereum Push
As compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum’s push was because of a variety of reasons, in addition to macroeconomic situations.
Since Ethereum is the dominating currency in DeFi, hence its own increase was organic. Secondly, Ethereum was also dominating the NFT market, and once again ownership increase was automatic.
Thirdly, after ‘The Merge’ update in the Ethereum network, the update gave rise to massive scale adoption of Ethereum.
Majority of the Crypto Population
The report also highlights the majority of crypto owners within the global crypto ownership. It notes that out of the global crypto owner population, 50% (i.e. the majority) belongs to Bitcoin owners.
Furthermore, the report reveals that 20% of the global crypto population belongs to Ethereum owners.
The report also discusses that Ethereum’s growth rate was at a high level than that of Bitcoin in 2022. The only exception was seen in April 2022 when the Bitcoin adoption rate went exceeding Ethereum.
Experts believe that crypto adoption in 2023 would likely increase by at least 4.2%. With 4.2% expected growth in 2023, we can estimate the population to be around 420 million roughly.
