Ethereum Statistics 2022 and 2023: Merge, Transactions and Popularity

With an astronomical market cap of over $150 billion as of December 1, 2022, Ethereum is a well-regarded and popular cryptocurrency.

And it’s been a big year for ETH with The Merge. So as 2022 draws to a close and we look ahead to 2023, what do the numbers look like? Below, we’ll take a look at some mind-blowing Ethereum statistics.

Ethereum Merge Statistics

Not totally familiar with The Merge? Well, the quick summary is that Ethereum’s Merge refers to the long-awaited 2022 upgrade, which merged the original Ethereum Mainnet with Beacon Chain (which was a separate proof-of-stake blockchain) in a bid to reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption. (You can read more about The Merge in our guide.)

Here are some key facts about Ethereum’s Merge:

1. The Merge reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by over 99%.

2. Over the past 12 months, there have been an average of 12,100 searches per month in the U.S. for “Ethereum merge” as people seek to find out more.

3. Searches peaked in September 2022, unsurprisingly (The Merge date was September 15), with over 100,000 searches in the U.S. alone.

4. The Merge was live-streamed on YouTube, with over 40,000 live viewers at its peak.

5. As of November 1, the video of The Merge stream has enjoyed over 300,000 views on YouTube 

Ethereum Transaction Statistics

For many Ethereum observers, the most intriguing statistics relate to transactions. The number of Ethereum transactions per month going back to 2015 is found below:

6. In August 2022, there were an average of 1,121,920 Ethereum transactions per day.

7. These August 2022 figures represent an increase of over 65% vs. the pre-pandemic (August 2019).

8. Equally important, they represent a drop of 6.79% vs. August 2021.

9. Ethereum passed the milestone of 1 million transactions per day on average in June 2020, and since then has never dropped below this figure in any given month. 

10. While growth in average transactions is somewhat more stagnant in recent months, the early growth of Ethereum was astronomical. Between August and December 2015, average daily transactions almost doubled.

11. Over the course of 2016, numbers grew incredibly fast as well. Comparing January 2017 with January 2016, average daily Ethereum transactions increased by over 208%.

12. In 2017, the number of average daily transactions grew phenomenally. January 2017 saw an average of 43,650 Ethereum transactions per day on average. By January 2018 this figure was an incredible 877,280, representing an increase of 1,909.8% over a 12-month period.

13. However, in the 12 months that followed (comparing January 2018 with January 2019), the number of transactions per day fell by 41%.

Ethereum Energy Consumption Statistics

How much does it actually cost in energy terms to mine Ethereum? And what’s the real cost of Ethereum in environmental terms? Here are some statistics relating to Ethereum energy consumption.

We already reported that The Merge reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by over 99%. But how impressive is that actually?

14. Ethereum’s cutting-edge proof of stake (PoS) technology consumes just 0.0026 TWh/year across the whole global network.

15. To give this some context, here’s how that stacks up against other technologies and platforms:

22. In terms of carbon emissions, Ethereum’s 0.0026TWh/year consumption equates to 870 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Ethereum Market Cap Month by Month

It’s clear that Ethereum has an impressive usership. But how has this cryptocurrency’s market cap changed since its launch? 

23. As of November 23, 2022, Ethereum’s market capitalization was $141.57 billion. 

24. This followed an all-time high (ATH) of $556.02 billion in November 2021.

25. As you can see from the graph (above), Ethereum’s market capitalization experienced a significant drop between April and July 2022, declining from a healthy $400.94 billion to $139.54 billion in 3 short months.

26. As with many forms of crypto, Ethereum’s market cap has changed significantly from month to month over the past few years. The table below shows these changes over the last 5 years:

Ethereum Crime Statistics

In our compilation of cryptocurrency statistics, we found that estimates show some jaw-dropping crime figures.

27. It’s estimated that illicit addresses received $14 billion in crypto in 2021 alone.

28. To give that some context, that number still represents just 0.15% of all transactions. Therefore, criminal activity is a small fraction of overall crypto activity.

29. Nevertheless, that’s still an 83% increase in estimated criminal activity when compared with the 2020 figure of $7.8 billion in illicit crypto funds.

And while we probably don’t need to worry too much about would-be Ethereum hackers, trying to figure out how to do that using Google — there are a few of those around!

30. According to data from Semrush, there are 360 searches per month for “hack ethereum.”

31. There are 170 Google searches per month (globally) for “how to hack ethereum.”

Ethereum Popularity

So, we know how many Ethereum transactions are made per day, as well as its current market cap. But where does this popular altcoin stand in relation to its competitors? Is it actually the second biggest cryptocurrency? And has this always been the case? 

To find out, we analyzed over 17 million Google searches carried out over the past 7 years using the search analysis tool Keyword Finder. The results found that:

32. As of 2022, an average of 806,000 searches are conducted each month for “Ethereum.” 

33. As of 2022, Ethereum is officially the most popular altcoin when it comes to online interest, followed by XRP and Polkadot.

48. In terms of Ethereum’s popularity over time, searches for the coin peaked in 2017 during its first big price spike. 

49. Between the months of April and June 2017, Ethereum’s price increased from around $45 to approximately $362; online search volumes appear to have reflected this.

Average monthly online searches for the most popular altcoins between 2016 and 2020, Google Trends

50. In 2019, Ethereum was temporarily overtaken as the second most popular altcoin by XRP (Ripple). As you can see from the chart, in 2019, global average monthly searches for the term XRP numbered 555,333, compared with Ethereum’s ever-so-slightly-lower 543,250.

51. However, as of 2020, Ethereum regained its status as the most popular altcoin, with its average monthly search volumes increasing to 900,556, leaving XRP and Litecoin in second and third place.

Ethereum Outlook — The Good and the Bad News

What’s the outlook for this popular cryptocurrency going into 2023? 

The Bad News for the Future of Ethereum

Let’s start off with the bad news. What are the major cons of investing in Ethereum? 

52. At the start of November, Ethereum’s price dropped by a whopping 18% in the space of just 24 hours. Even as volatile as crypto is, this is an extremely sharp decline. 

53. Twice this year (2022), Ethereum’s market cap dropped to its lowest value since January 2021, falling to $1,137.76 billion in November and $1,118.98 billion in July. 

54. Like other Layer 1 blockchains, Ethereum is fully transparent, meaning that every transaction is accessible by the public. This can present major privacy issues, particularly for institutional players and DeFi traders.

55. Scalability is also an issue for Ethereum, which averages 15 to 30 transactions per second. This makes it far less scalable than the likes of Polkadot, Solana and other key competitors.

The Good News for Ethereum Heading Into 2023 

How about the good news for Ethereum investors, or for those thinking about investing in the currency? 

56. Now may be a great time to invest in Ethereum, given its current crash, resulting in the coin being down 74.34% since its all time high As we’ve seen in the past with this coin, dips in price are always followed by peaks, so an investment now could yield annualized returns similar to its last successful run.

57. Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities are a desirable feature to many, enabling users to automatically execute transactions without the need for an intermediary.

58. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is programmable — making it a versatile marketplace for financial services, games and apps. As we head into 2023, this capability can bring a wide range of benefits.

59. Ethereum is the most secure and developed blockchain platform and ecosystem in the world, making it an excellent choice for anyone thinking about investing in crypto.

60. Since November 2022, Ethereum has been using what's known as a free-burning mechanism. Over time, this decreases the supply of Ethereum coins in circulation, making ETH a deflationary asset — which is great news for investors in the coin.

Sources

1. https://ethereum.org/en/upgrades/merge/

2. SEMRUSH keyword data

3. Live Stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx-jYgI0QVI

https://ethereum.org/en/energy-consumption/

4. Keyword Finder

5. https://carbon-ratings.com/eth-report-2022

6. Google Trends data

7. https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/11/19/why-is-nobody-talking-about-

this-new-feature-of-et/