The Ethereum blockchain network posted a net profit of $365 million in the first quarter, putting it on track to reach an annual profit of $1 billion as quarterly revenue rose 155 percent year-on-year.
According to an April 17 report from DeFi Report analyst Michael Nadeau, the network's first-quarter 2024 revenue was up nearly 200% compared to fourth-quarter 2023 earnings of US$123 million.
Ethereum's revenue from user transaction fees totaled $1.17 billion, up 155 percent from Q1 2023 and 80 percent from the previous quarter.
Nadeau cited increased activity on the network as the reason for the revenue increase, "mainly due to a surge in DeFi activity during the quarter.
Thanks to the surge in activity, average daily transactions on the blockchain in 2024 have already surpassed last year's numbers and are approaching the results of Ethereum's peak in 2021.
The average daily number of transactions on the blockchain in 2024 will exceed 1.15 million, up slightly from 1.05 million last year and just below the 1.25 million recorded in 2021.
#BTC , which launched in 2015, became profitable for the first time in 2023, earning $623 million, but this year's revenue was 75% below the peak of $9.9 billion in 2021.
This was mainly due to the switch to proof-of-stake consensus in September '22, which reduced the reward to miners (now validators) for tokens by about 80%," Nadeau explained.
He added that Ethereum fees have increased by 58% since 2017.
Nadeau gave his predictions for the market over the next few years, concluding that "cryptocurrencies will outperform all other currencies.
He expects liquidity to increase in the "next few years" as the US has a large amount of debt that needs to be refinanced this year, and the market is factoring in three Federal Reserve rate cuts this year.
That should be a boost to risk assets such as high-tech stocks and high-grade #cryptocurrencies .
#BTC and Ether (ETH) are "pretty highly correlated," Nadeau argues.
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