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https://cointelegraph.com/news/eth-ecosystem-users-9x-since-2020-vaneck-forecast-22k-2030
The number of daily active users for Ethereum and the top 2 has surged in recent years, and VanEck analysts say this growth will continue.
The Ethereum ecosystem has nearly nine times as many daily active users as it did four years ago — and analysts say growing demand will drive ETH to new heights.
According to data collected by crypto ETF issuer Bitwise, Ethereum and its scaling solutions Arbitrum and Polygon had an average of more than 250,000 daily active users in the first quarter of 2020, with the largest share coming from Ethereum’s Layer 1 mainnet.
As of Q1 2024, that number of daily users (which now also includes the since-launched layer 2 networks Optimism, Base, and zkSync) reached ~2.25 million, an almost 9x increase.
Ethereum now accounts for a much smaller percentage of daily active users due to pushing transactions to L2.
On June 4, the Ethereum mainnet had 378,000 active users, Polygon had 1.3 million active users, and the other four L2s had a total of about 1.5 million active users.
Optimism launched in late 2021, while zkSync mainnet and Base opened to the public in 2023.
Ethereum’s user numbers don’t look great, but they are part of the roadmap that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is focusing on using L2s as a means of scaling the main blockchain.
He recently said that L2s are similar to the old Eth 2 initiative’s sharding concept, and that the layer may also help foster the development of various “subcultures” within the Ethereum ecosystem.
VanEck predicts growth for the Ethereum network
Meanwhile, crypto ETF issuer VanEck raised its price target for Ethereum — predicting the cryptocurrency will reach $22,000 by 2030.
In a June 5 blog post, Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, and two colleagues raised their forecasts for ether by 2030 (from just $11,800 last year), noting that its revenue per user exceeds that of most Web2 businesses and will become increasingly popular among traditional financial market participants as well as large technology companies.
"We expect spot ether ETFs to be approved for trading on U.S. stock exchanges soon. This development will enable financial advisors and institutional investors to hold this unique asset [...] and benefit from the pricing and liquidity advantages that are specific to ETFs," the analysts said.
“We project ETH’s 2030 valuation based on the $66 billion in free cash flow that Ethereum will generate and credit to the ETH token,” the analyst added.
Related: Linea blockchain suspension highlights slow progress towards decentralization of Ethereum L2s
Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams noted that despite the lower number of users, the Ethereum blockchain still generates three times the fees of the top 2 networks and Solana combined, calling it a “modern miracle.”
L2 pays Ethereum fees to settle transactions on the main chain and benefits from its security.
Ethereum is currently priced at $3,862, up 1.3% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Many expect the launch of a spot Ethereum ETF will eventually push the price of Ethereum to a new all-time high, but some warn that inflows into new cryptocurrency ETFs will be significantly lower than those into Bitcoin ETFs.
