According to a recent report from Glassnode, the number of Ethereum wallets with a non-zero balance soared to a record high towards the end of 2021. Before the year ended, on 29 December, this figure had reached a new ATH, touching 71,364,788 as per the blockchain analytics firm.

This is 38% growth since the same period in 2020 when it had also touched a previous ATH of above 51 million. The surge seen in 2020 was on account of the explosive growth in the DeFi space as well as a rising interest in cryptocurrencies, especially Ethereum, by institutional investors.

Cut to 2021, and there are far more factors behind this growth – one of the biggest being the NFT boom. From gaining mainstream adoption by the ‘stuffy’ art world, as was witnessed during Art Basel in Miami a few months ago, the phenomenon went on to let users tokenize and own just about any kind of asset.

OpenSea, based on Ethereum, is the world’s largest NFT marketplace and home to some of the most popular digital collectibles in the market, including the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), CryptoPunks and even The Sandbox. Several crypto experts have also pointed out how NFTs and the high levels of activity in this sector were one of the key reasons for driving up the gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain.

Looking ahead into this year, we could see the activity surge over more upcoming innovations within the crypto sector. While the DeFi and NFT markets will continue to grow and see rising institutional interest as well, we could also see sub-sectors such as P2E and the metaverse also gain higher traction within the community and support the growth of users holding Ethereum and Ethereum-based tokens going forward.