Daily Active Addresses on Ethereum
An address on a blockchain network is considered ‘active’ as soon as it participates in a successful transaction. Therefore, the term ‘daily active addresses’ refers to the distinct number of addresses involved in transactions, whether as senders or receivers. In essence, the number of daily active addresses can provide us with estimates about the number of users participating in transactions within a given network.
- At the beginning of 2023, specifically on January 2nd, the Ethereum network recorded 339,858 active addresses.
Compared to the last quarter of the notorious year 2022, these figures are considerably lower. However, it didn’t take long for the numbers to climb back to their average heights. As of the time of writing (May 23), there were 398,403 active addresses on the Ethereum network that day.
Still, that’s nothing compared to Ethereum’s all time high in terms of daily active addresses, which occurred December 9th, 2022.
- Unbelievably, 1.420 million Ethereum addresses participated in transactions that day.
Source: YCharts
Source: YCharts
Data about the daily active addresses allows us to estimate the number of users joining the network daily. However, these numbers alone cannot help us determine the total number of successfully completed transactions. You see, one address can be involved in multiple transactions (where do these people get their money from?!), so we need to analyze those numbers separately.
- On the second day of 2023, the Ethereum network recorded 920,276 successful transactions. Therefore, on average, each active address on that day completed approximately 2.30 transactions.
Furthermore, on May 23rd, there were 1.113 million successful transactions on the Ethereum network. On average, each active address completed approximately 2.79 successful transactions.
Source: YCharts
Average Ethereum Transaction Fee
Now, let’s discuss the fees. The Ethereum network is widely known for imposing high fees due to regular network congestion and its limited capacity to process all pending transactions simultaneously. As a result, a portion of the total fee amount serves as a priority fee, which users pay to gain an advantage over other network participants. The higher the priority fee, the faster miners will process your transaction. This becomes particularly crucial when seeking a favorable deal. We know how the market is – you have to move fast if you want to avoid losing money.
- The average transaction fee on January 1st, 2023, amounted to 2.93 USD.
Source: imgflip
- The first significant spike of the year happened on February 14th, when the average daily Ethereum fee reached 8.55 USD or, at that time, approximately 0.005 ETH.
We saw another significant increase in the average transaction fee on March 11th, when the average fee amounted to 16.32 USD or 0.011 ETH**. The network was doing fine for a while, and then May came, bringing us the unexpected Pepe meme coin craze.
- So far, the highest average daily transaction fee in 2023 was recorded on May 5th, with the average transaction fee amounting to 27.62 USD, or roughly 0.013 ETH**.
**The charts follow the real market value, and as the ETH price grows, the ETH-USD value fluctuates.
Another fun fact (or not so fun, depending on who you’re talking to) is that, according to Etherscan, the highest average daily transaction fee on Ethereum reached 200.06 USD and was recorded on May 1st, 2022.
Source: Etherscan
Ethereum Average Block Size Over the Years
The Ethereum block size is not fixed and varies according to network demands. Since its inception, the Ethereum block size has experienced an increase.
- On August 6th, 2015, the average size of Ethereum blocks was 584 bytes, and it took only a few months for it to double.
Source: Etherscan
The first significant spike occurred on October 10th, 2016, when the average block size for that day reached an astonishing 12,725 bytes. Block sizes within the Ethereum ecosystem then dropped to 1000-2500 bytes but began growing significantly again around May 2017.
- On March 23rd, 2023, the average Ethereum block size reached 130,034 bytes, marking the largest recorded size to date.
Source: Etherscan
Ethereum vs Bitcoin vs Cardano: Daily Active Addresses
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano are the three largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. Let’s compare daily active addresses on these networks.
As mentioned earlier, the Ethereum network recorded 339,858 active addresses on January 2nd, 2023. At the same time, Bitcoin had 725,036 active addresses participating in transactions. Cardano, on the other hand, had the lowest count with 82,349 active addresses conducting transactions on its network.
- The highest count of active daily addresses on Ethereum was recorded on December 9th, 2022, with 1,420 million active addresses. In comparison, Bitcoin reached its all-time high in terms of daily active addresses on May 15th, 2021, with 1.1961 million addresses participating in successful transactions.
When it comes to daily active addresses on Cardano, they are slightly behind. The highest daily active address count on Cardano was recorded on February 14th, 2022, and it amounted to 230,015.
Source: imgflip
Sources: YChart, BitInfoCharts, Messari
