According to Flipside’s “New EVM Users: Q1 Snapshot” report, Ethereum and Polygon continue to outpace newer Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains in attracting fresh users and boosting trading volumes.
As of March 27, Ethereum welcomed 13.4 million new users, while Polygon recorded 12.3 million, collectively representing approximately 70% of the total influx of new EVM users this year. In comparison, Arbitrum has onboarded 4.7 million users since the start of 2024.
Ethereum’s mainnet continues to maintain its historical dominance, while Layer-2 protocols are experiencing increased data processing. Decentralized finance (DeFi) remains a primary attraction for new users, with Ethereum leading in trading volume at $12 billion in the first quarter.
Moreover, the steady rise in DeFi activity contrasts with the volatile swings observed in the previous year, signaling a growing interest and involvement in DeFi among newcomers in the blockchain realm.
Arbitrum secured the second position on the list, with a $9.5 billion surge since the beginning of 2024. This achievement is credited to heightened new user activity within Arbitrum’s DeFi sector. Conversely, Polygon’s substantial increase in new users is linked to a surge in non-fungible token (NFT) activity.
Base, boasting a record 243,000 new users as of March 16, has nearly multiplied its new user base by eight since January, attributed to Coinbase’s efforts to simplify cryptocurrency for beginners.
“While Base still trails behind the leading EVM chains in overall new user volume, its remarkable growth, particularly following a decline in activity during the latter months of 2023, is noteworthy,” stated the report.
The report highlights that this surge aligns with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high and represents the highest single-day new user count among EVM chains this year.
Highlighting diversity, a notable portion of newly registered users engage with a variety of decentralized applications (dApps) on Ethereum. However, analysis indicates that Ethereum did not boast the most evenly distributed app adoption among the six chains examined.
“This accolade goes to Base, where the disparity in new user volume between the chain’s top two apps was merely 16.9%, in contrast to Ethereum’s approximately 300%.”
“The relatively recent emergence of Base likely mitigated early protocols’ first-mover advantage and subsequent network effects, preventing user consolidation around a single app.”
Token swaps and bridging apps serve as the typical entry points for new users on EVM chains, with Uniswap and Orbiter Finance leading the charge on Ethereum and Base, respectively.
Additional insights from the Flipside report reveal a mixed picture of NFT trading activity across EVM chains.
While new user NFT trading on Ethereum and Base experienced steady growth, it notably declined on Polygon from its initial peaks. This variability underscores the erratic nature of interest in NFTs and suggests that they may not maintain their dominance in the market narrative in the upcoming cycle as they did previously.
Moreover, the report underscores the influence of specific applications in directing user activity across different chains. For example, many new Optimism users were attracted to Worldcoin (WLD), indicating sustained community interest in particular projects:
“This noteworthy statistic, coupled with Optimism’s relatively low DeFi and NFT trading volume compared to other observed chains, may signify a potential divergence in Optimism’s ecosystem evolution relative to other EVM chains.”
