Ethereum continues to record strong growth as anticipation builds for the next version of the network, with data from Etherscan revealing today that the number of distinct addresses on the network has surpassed 100 million.
The new milestone has come in a little under five years since the network was launched and signals the inevitable mainstream adoption of the most used blockchain network for decentralized applications (DeFi).
Meanwhile, a closer look at the charts reveals that approximately 16 million addresses have been added since the start of the year, even though the price of Ether (ETH) has not shown a corresponding increase, trading only as high as $282 over the same period.
The 100 million addresses mark, also does not entirely represent active usage of the Ethereum network for transactions since only a fraction of that address is active or used daily.
Data from BitInfoCharts shows that just 438,002 addresses are active on the Ethereum network daily, even though the network had recorded over 1 million active addresses at the height of the 2017 crypto bull market.
How does this compare with Bitcoin?
Although recording 438,002 daily active addresses may seem poor on the surface, another data from Santiment reveals that the number is just under 50% of the 977,000 active addresses on the Bitcoin network.
On the other hand, the trickling growth in the number of active addresses both on Bitcoin and Ethereum perhaps signifies that these cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used as investment vehicles instead of for transactional purposes.
In May, Coinfomania reported that roughly 60% of bitcoins in circulation have been unmoved throughout the past year, while 55% of ETH holders being in profit is another reason why a large portion of the coin’s supply will likely remain dormant in the short-term.
