Gaming and social dominate as the two big cryptocurrency use cases, according to a new report from Andreessen Horowitz.
The State of Crypto 2024 report also revealed that while DeFi has the highest number of daily active addresses, stablecoins are a close second at 34% vs. 32%. Infrastructure comes in third place at about 14%.
Growth has continued this cycle, with monthly active addresses reaching an all-time high of 220 million, representing “growth reminiscent of early Internet adoption.” Among these addresses, Solana and Base are the most active, with the EVM chain accounting for 52 million addresses and other chains with 174 million addresses.
read more: A16z is betting on Solana games
Looking more closely, only about 10% of cryptocurrency owners are currently active, which equates to between 30 million and 60 million monthly active users.
“There are a lot of people who are just passive holders, but if we can turn them into active users… in a way that we believe holds great promise going forward. “I think we can expand the use of cryptocurrencies in the future,” Darren said. Matsuoka, a data scientist at a16z, told Blockworks.
The goal is to bring people on-chain and “convert those crypto holders into active crypto users,” he continued.
read more: Is Cryptocurrency’s “ChatGPT” moment just around the corner?
Venture capital is investing heavily in infrastructure, and the sector is now showing signs of maturing, according to a16z data. This growth has positive ripple effects across related sectors. For example, blockchain processes more than 50 times more transactions per second than just four years ago.
“Infrastructure is just starting to get to the point where it can extend blockchain and enable new types of applications and new behaviors. I think there are two good examples on the stablecoin side. “We've seen stablecoins fit into the product market, and I think that's mainly because transaction fees have come down. Stablecoins are a great product when fees are low,” Matsuoka said. Explained.
On top of that, the DAO's treasury holds billions of dollars that could help improve the network.
As for what happens next, a16z believes legislation is being considered for 2024 and beyond. Institutional investors are here, and for that group of investors, “cryptocurrencies can become part of a diversified portfolio” and not just Bitcoin or ETH.
“Price innovation cycles will continue to drive the crypto market. When prices go up, people get interested, developers build, and new products move the industry forward,” writes a16z .
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