30+ Fascinating Ethereum Statistics

Ethereum is a smart contracts blockchain platform running on a proof-of-stake network following its recent transition from a proof-of-work mechanism. The native cryptocurrency token on the platform is Ether, whose trading symbol is ETH.

Here we compile top Ethereum statistics in 2022, starting with the following highlights:

• Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap with a market dominance of nearly 18%. Only Bitcoin is bigger as of October 2022 with a market dominance of 40%.
• There are over 200 million ETH owners, with about 14 million in the United States.
• The daily average ETH transactions value is 1 million.
• Ethereum energy consumption fell 99.5% after the Merge, with estimated Terawatt hour (TWh) per year falling from 93.97 to 0.01.
• ETH DeFi TVL hit $200 billion in 2021 before plummeting alongside crypto prices to around $31 billion by October 2022.

Ethereum launch, network activity and addresses

1. When did Ethereum (ETH) launch?

Ethereum launched in 2015 following the publication of a whitepaper detailing the new ‘World Computer’ in 2014. Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Joseph Lubin, Charles Hoskinson and Anthonio di Lorio are co-founders.

2. The initial Ethereum supply was 72 million ETH

The Ethereum supply began with a premine of 72 million Ether coins, which were sold during a crowd sale between July and August 2014.

About 83% of this initial supply was sold during the public sale that raised approximately $18 million towards the early development of the cryptocurrency. The current ETH circulating supply is about 120 million Ether tokens.

3. Ethereum’s market cap reached a high of $571 billion in November 2021

Ethereum is currently the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization at $162 billion as of 24 October 2022, behind Bitcoin with $370 billion. The cryptocurrency’s total market cap has fallen sharply in the past year though, with Ethereum’s market cap having hit an all-time high of $571 billion on 9 November 2021.

4. Ethereum network processes on average 1 million transactions per day

The Ethereum network processes an average of 1 million transactions per day, with post-Merge data from Messari showing ETH transactions dropped to 980,680 on 10 October 2022.

5. Ethereum daily transactions count grew 139% since January 2020

The transaction count on the Ethereum network grew from 466,526 on January 1, 2020 to over 1 million in 2022, accounting for 139% change.

6. Daily ETH transaction count hit an all-time high of 1.71 million in May 2021

ETH transaction count hit 1,716,600 on 3 May 2021, the all-time high in Ethereum’s daily count that came as the price of Ether topped $3,900.

7. Ethereum daily active addresses average 480k

Ethereum’s active addresses continue to average around 480,000, but the post-Merge price stagnation saw some increased capitulation by weak hands. As of October 2022, on-chain data platform Santiment said sell-off pressure had helped push the active addresses count to below 400k, the lowest level for this metric in 4 months since 26 June.

8. Over 1.45 million Ethereum smart contracts were created in the first 3 months of 2022

There were 1.45 million smart contracts created on the Ethereum network in Q1 2022, showing an increase of 24.7% from the 1.16 million smart contracts in Q4, 2021.

9. Average daily Ethereum gas fee fell 12% in 2022

Ethereum gas fees spiked in late 2021, with average daily gas cost ranging around 0.009 ETH or about $19.00. The figure fell in early 2022, with the average transaction fee dropping to about 0.0079 ETH, or $16.75 for a net decrease of 12% amid reduced on-chain activity.

10. Ethereum transaction total fell 9% between Q4 2021 and Q1, 2022

Ethereum saw a total of 116.16 transactions in Q4, 2021. However, with crypto prices falling rapidly, transaction volumes for the first quarter of 2022 fell to 105.58 million, representing a 9.1% decrease.

Ethereum ownership

11. 201 million people own Ethereum

About 201 million people owned Ethereum as of July 2022, with the number expected to grow as more people buy crypto for various reasons.

12. Ethereum addresses with Non-Zero balance hit 85 million in August 2022

The total number of Ethereum addresses with non-zero balance rose to an all-time high of 85,367,215 in late August 2022, with the

Ethereum Merge and falling prices pushing the metric to the new milestone, Glassnode data showed.

13. Top 10 Ethereum addresses own nearly ¼ of ETH supply

According to Santiment, 23.7% of ETH supply was held by the 10 richest addresses by the end of Q1 2022. The top 10 whale addresses on the Ethereum network added 4.3% new ETH between Mach 2021 and March 2022, bringing their share to 23.7% of circulating supply. The whale addresses in this category breached a 5-year high in January 2020.

14. The Beacon Deposit contract holds the most ETH balance at over 14.4 million

As of October 2022, the total ETH deposits in the Beacon Deposit contract was more than 14.4 million. According to Etherscan, this is the account with the largest ETH balance. The wallet address has seen over 229,800 transactions to date, with the amount of ETH deposited in the contract totaling over $19 billion.

15. Binance has the third largest ETH balance account

While Wrapped Ether (WETH) holds over 4 million Ether, Binance 8 (one of several ETH accounts belonging to crypto exchange Binance) has the third largest ETH balance at over 2.48 million as of October 24.

16. There are currently 132 billionaire whale addresses with over 28.5 million ETH

According to on-chain data by Santiment, Ethereum billionaire wallets with 1 million ETH or more added 14% more to their holdings to bring their total holdings to an all-time high of 28.55 million Ether. Santiment counts 132 such addresses as of October 2022.

17. More than 280,000 addresses hold 10+ ETH

The number of addresses holding ETH surpassed 280,000 in February 2022, according to data from crypto platform Glassnode. As per the site, about 280,792 ETH addresses held 10+ Ether coins to surpass a previous high reached in 2021.

18. Singapore has the most Ethereum owners with 43.5% of crypto investors holding ETH

While the US and countries across Europe are seeing increased numbers of Ethereum investors, Singapore ranks first in a survey of 27 countries. According to a BanklessTimes survey, Ethereum is Singapore’s most popular cryptocurrency with 43.5% of crypto owners saying they own ETH.

Australia has the second highest number of Ethereum owners among crypto owners by country with 42.9%. The UK was third with 32.9% in the survey mentioned above, while the United States had about 31.1% of crypto owners holding ETH to rank 4th.

19. 14 million American adults hold ETH

There are 14 million ETH owners in the US in 2022, reflecting a 26.8% growth from 2021. According to a recent survey, 31.1% of US-based crypto investors currently own ETH, with the number percentage growth expected to hit almost 39% by the end of 2022.

Ethereum energy consumption index

Ethereum started off as a proof-of-work (PoW) network, and used mining as a network consensus mechanism to process transactions and secure the network. That changed on 15 September 2022 with the Ethereum Merge, which removed mining and changed a lot in terms of Ethereum’s energy consumption.

20. Ethereum’s energy consumption fell 99.5% after the Merge

Ethereum switched from a proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism on 15 September 2021 when the Beacon Chain of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade merged with the then PoW chain that used the same consensus mechanism as Bitcoin. Since its transition to a PoS chain, Ethereum’s Energy Consumption Index has changed, with more efficiency cutting computational power usage by over 99.5%. As such, Ethereum’s annualised energy consumption fell from 93.97 TWh to 0.01 TWh after the merge

21. Ethereum’s 0.01 TWh annualised power consumption is equivalent to that of Gibraltar

Ethereum’s annualised electricity consumption of 0.01 TWh after the Merge in September 2022 means the blockchain’s total energy consumption is now equivalent to that of Gibraltar. Before that, mining Ethereum in 2021 used more electricity that countries such as Colombia and Czechia

22. Ethereum’s carbon footprint of 0.01 Mt CO2 is equivalent to that of Faroe Islands

The current Ethereum carbon footprint is smaller than many cryptocurrencies. The PoS network’s current 0.01 Mt CO2 carbon footprint is now comparable to that of Faroe Islands, a country with a population of nearly 54,000 as of 2022.

23. A single Ethereum transaction uses 0.03 kWh

The Ethereum network uses 0.03 kWh to process a single transaction, according to statistics as of October 2022.

24. The carbon footprint of a single Ethereum transaction is equivalent to that of 22 VISA transactions

While Ethereum’s overall carbon footprint has fallen dramatically, a single Ethereum transaction still leaves a carbon footprint of 0.01 kgCO2. This is the same as the carbon footprint of watching YouTube for 2 hours or processing 22 VISA transactions.

Ethereum DeFi statistics

25. Ethereum tops DeFi by total value locked (TVL)

The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols on the Ethereum chain is currently around $31 billion, with MakerDAO dominance at over

25% to lead ETH-based protocols. Overall, Ethereum currently represents over 58% of the overall DeFi market.

26. There are 4.8 million DeFi users on Ethereum

More than 4.8 million DeFi users are on Ethereum, illustrating the network’s dominance as a leading DeFi ecosystem. At the start of 2020, there were just over 100,000 users within the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.

27. Ethereum DeFi TVL hit $200 billion in November 2021

The total value locked in DeFi on the Ethereum blockchain rose from $20 billion in November 2020 to nearly $200 billion in November 2021. According to DeFiLlama data at the time, TVL on Ethereum represented over 96% of overall market share. Growth in TVL was fuelled by the 1000% jump in ETH price in 2021, with Ether reaching an all-time high above $4,800 in November that year.

28. Ethereum TVL in DeFi fell by over 85% in 2022

While DeFi TVL on the Ethereum chain reached highs above $200 billion in 2021, the crypto winter that followed had wiped out over 85% of the market value by October 2022. A bear market crash for Ether and other tokens contributed to this, with ETH prices reaching lows of $900 in June 2022.

29. OpenSea is the most popular Ethereum DeFi platform with 2.3 million users

OpenSea, a leading NFT marketplace that sprung onto the scene during the NFT craze in 2020-2021, ranks as the most popular DeFi dApp on Ethereum. Data on Dune Analytics shows that there were 2.3 million registered users as of October 2022 with at least one transaction.

Other top DeFi platforms and applications in the Ethereum ecosystem are Uniswap, 1inch, and Sushiswap.

30. Ethereum DeFi gas usage fell nearly 50% after November 2021

Even though Ethereum continues to be the dominant chain in the DeFi ecosystem, gas usage by various protocol applications has been on the decline since November 2021. Data from on-chain analytics provider Glassnode showed that gas use by Ethereum DeFi protocols had fallen from around 28% to 15% in July, while NFTs gas usage was up by 6.2%.

Ethereum price and trading information

31. Ethereum price all-time high is above $4,800

Since its launch in 2015, the Ethereum price has seen massive growth to hit an all-time high above $4,800 in November 2021. However, ETH price fell to lows of $900 in June 2022 to see more than 80% of the gains wiped out before recovering above the $1,000 level.

32. Ethereum price at $1,330 is 308,000% higher than its all-time low in 2015

Ethereum traded at a low of $0.432979 on 20 October 2015, which according to data from CoinGecko, puts the current ETH price about 308,011.0% higher. The gains have been achieved over a 7-year period.

33. Ethereum price has made only 8 new lows over the past 5 years

While Ethereum price remains volatile as are other cryptocurrencies, with 15 new lows touched in 2022, the past five years cuts that to 8. According to Barchart.com, Ethereum’s historical price data shows the cryptocurrency’s current price of around $1,330 is 1,478% higher since the last 5-year low.

34. Binance is the biggest Ethereum exchange based on 24h volume

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by trading volume, ranks top among the top 20 crypto exchanges for ETH based on 24 hour volume. According to Statista, ETH/BUSD and ETH/USDT are the top trading pairs on Binance, while ETH/USD is the leading pair on both Coinbase and FTX.

35. What’s the Ethereum (ETH) Sharpe ratio?

The Sharpe ratio refers to the average return on investment (ROI) compared to potential risks, with investors able to gauge an asset’s long term performance based on the ratio. A higher Sharpe ratio means more risk is likely to pay off. Ethereum’s 12-month rolling Sharpe ratio has hovered between 1 and 2, but it’s fallen below zero in 2022 to currently stand around -0.76 – reflecting potential losses on ETH portfolios

Conclusion

The Ethereum blockchain launched in 2015, and ranks only behind Bitcoin in current market value. Meanwhile, it’s seeing the most network activity among altcoins, leading the way as the largest smart contracts network powering thousands of decentralised applications (dApps) within the growing decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Ethereum is also the most popular blockchain platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) among other use cases.