Interest in Ethereum grows to 40 million addresses

Bitcoin still dominates on other measures. Its daily active addresses outnumber XRP's by 140 to 1, according to Weiss. On several key metrics, though, Ethereum shows better user numbers than Bitcoin. Ripple's XRP has lagged behind both over the same period.

Prices diverge from this growth. Ethereum peaked above $1,400 in January 2018, then lost almost 90% of its value over the next year. Starting 2020 from a low of $130, the token has recovered nearly 50%. It now trades below $210, down 3% on the day and over 7% in the past week. That puts it 85% below the all-time high. Address growth has continued despite this volatility.

Most investors begin with Bitcoin and then move to altcoins, including Ethereum, according to Coinbase research. Large institutional investors have entered the market. Grayscale Investments has purchased Ethereum on behalf of clients representing almost half of the coins mined in 2020 through April 24. Ethereum miners generated 1,563,245.875 coins by that date. Grayscale acquired 756,239.777 of these at 0.09427052 Ether per share.

Traders have placed a record number of Ethereum long positions since February. Ethereum 2.0, an upcoming network upgrade, has captured market optimism. Ethereum will shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake validation, changing how the blockchain confirms new transactions.