DeFi Users Explode as ETH Makes New Highs

The Defiant | Dan Kahan | Apr 29, 2021

ETH is breaking new all-time highs of just under $2,800 on Thursday, and the breathtaking rally from $200 a year ago is coming with a boom in users.

MetaMask said it has surpassed the 5M monthly active users milestone, while a popular Dune Analytics dashboard shows DeFi users just recently climbed above 2M for the first time.

MetaMask Boom

MetaMask’s active user base has grown 400% during the past six months, according to the April 27 blog post.

The DeFi wallet had reached 1M cumulative monthly active users across its browser extension and mobile app for the first time in October 2020. Now in April, MetaMask is reporting over 5M active users over the past month.

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MetaMask attributed the influx of users to a combination of factors including the NFT craze and increased interest in DeFi from people in what the company calls “the Global South.”

“India and Indonesia are both in the top 5 countries in terms of MetaMask mobile adoption, while Vietnam and Nigeria are in the top 10,” the post says. “Many people in these countries do not trust their governments, and thus eagerly look towards alternatives.”

MetaMask also noted a significant uptick in usage of their in-wallet token swap function, MetaMask Swaps, reporting over $2B in accumulated transaction volume over a six-month period.

The Larger DeFi Boom

MetaMask’s growth is reflective of the larger explosive growth in overall DeFi users during the past few months.

Based on “DeFi Users Over Time” data compiled by 1confirmation’s Richard Chen using Dune Analytics, which tracks unique addresses interacting with major DeFi dapps, there were 586k Defi users at the beginning of October 2020. The DeFi user base has since grown about 240% to over 2M users.

To be sure, a single user can have multiple unique addresses, so the Dune Analytics numbers are somewhat inflated.

Source: Dune Analytics

Still, these analytics only reflect users interacting with 26 major DeFi apps like Uniswap, Compound, and 1Inch, which doesn’t encompass all DeFi dapps.

As indicated by MetaMask’s 5M monthly active users, there are potentially a large number of people who limit their Web3 activity to holding and swapping within their wallets using features like MetaMask Swap.

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