The rapid growth of the crypto market and Bitcoin’s price rally led to a surge in new crypto wallet users in 2021.
According to data presented by TradingPlatforms.com, the top ten cryptocurrency wallets hit 5.6 million downloads in January, a 150% increase in a month.
The Highest Number of Downloads After December 2017
During the first half of 2020, the combined download figures from the Coinbase, Blockchain Wallet, Crypto.com, BRD, Trust, Luno, Binance, Bitcoin Wallet, Bitcoin Wallet by Bitcoin.com, and Coinbase Wallet, as the top ten crypto apps, floated between 1.2 million and 1.4 million, revealed the Airnow data.
The following months witnessed an increasing trend, with the number of downloads rising to 1.8 million in August. Statistics show the ten most popular cryptocurrency wallets registered roughly 2.2 million downloads in December 2020. However, a month later, it grew to over 5.6 million, the highest figure since December 2017. Around this time, Bitcoin’s price surged to new heights, and other cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin attracted more and more general interest.
Statista Global Consumer Survey showed interesting stats about the crypto owners. Although the highest Bitcoin trading volume in 2020 came from the United States and Russia, people from countries in Africa, Asia, and South America were most likely to own cryptocurrencies.
Nigeria ranked as the leading country on this list, with nearly one out of three respondents who stated they either owned or used digital coins last year. Vietnam, the Philippines, and South Africa followed with 21%, 19.8%, and 17.8% share, respectively. On the other hand, only six out of 100 respondents in the United States used or owned crypto coins in 2020.
Although some countries are more likely to use digital currencies daily, statistics showed professional investors looking for a cryptocurrency-themed ETF were more often found in Europe. Most of the largest European crypto hedge fund managers in 2020 were either from the United Kingdom or Switzerland, as the country with the highest cryptocurrency adoption rate.
Coinbase and eToro hit Record Number of Users
In January, Coinbase hit its highest number of daily active users in the United States. The Airnow data show the popular crypto wallet reached over 600,000 users that month, around ten times more than Blockchain Wallet.
Other apps that allow either buying or storing Bitcoin also witnessed a surge in the number of users. Statistics show that Crypto.com saw its DAU double between December 2020 and January 2021, while the number of Americans using Voyager’s crypto wallet tripled in three months.
The use of crypto wallets in the United Kingdom also spiked between December 2020 and January 2021. As the market leader, Coinbase hit over 100,000 daily active users in the UK, roughly ten times more users than Crypto.com. Statistics show eToro saw its DAU triple in this period, jumping from 3,900 to almost 13,400 users.