TL;DR
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The number of crypto owners globally increased by 34% in 2023.
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There are now nearly 600 million crypto owners globally.
Crypto Owners Globally Surge By 34%
Research from cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has revealed that the number of global cryptocurrency owners grew 34% to 580 million by the end of 2023.
Per the report, 2023 began with 432 million crypto asset owners. However, Bitcoin holders grew by 33% to 296 million in December from 222 million in January 2023.
Furthermore, Bitcoin holders accounted for 51% of all cryptocurrency holders globally, the research added.
Crypto.com said,
"The main catalyst behind BTC's adoption growth was the development in bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the introduction of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, which enabled non-fungible tokens and fungible tokens to be minted on the Bitcoin network. Strong interest from institutional investors also contributed to the increase in BTC’s adoption."
Ethereum holders also significantly increased last year. The report revealed that Ether owners increased 39% to 124 million by December 2023 to comprise 21% of the worldwide crypto owner base.
However, the researchers said that Ether’s adoption growth can be attributed to liquid staking after Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade, which allowed the withdrawals of staked ETH after the transition to the Proof of Stake blockchain
Crypto.com said it obtained data for this research from numerous cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Crypto.com, KuCoin, Bybit, Poloniex, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Kraken, and several others.