Market capitalization is not the only way to measure a cryptocurrency’s popularity. As LongHash previously explored, looking at other data points can paint a different picture of the industry.





Another way to measure a coin’s popularity is to consider the amount of active wallet addresses on its blockchain. Active addresses are defined as those that have engaged in cryptocurrency transactions at any point during the last 24-hours.





LongHash looked at active addresses of the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap. As of press time, these are: Bitcoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and EOS.





When it comes to active wallet addresses, Bitcoin is still king

One benefit of considering active wallet addresses is that it essentially measures a cryptocurrency’s “foot traffic.” Through looking at the number of unique participants engaging with a cryptocurrency, we can better understand its popularity.







The seven-day average of active addresses still leaves Bitcoin as the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. Aside from boasting the industry’s largest market cap and being the most well-known crypto among everyday investors, Bitcoin also surpasses its peers in terms of active wallet addresses.





Over the last seven days, the median number of active Bitcoin wallet addresses was 592,090. Even during the bear market over the last six months, Bitcoin had between 400,000 and 800,000 active wallet addresses each day.

How the other leading cryptocurrencies stack up

While XRP may outrank Ether when it comes to market cap, Ether is by far more popular in terms of active addresses.





With a seven-day average of 216,482 daily active addresses, Ethereum ranks as the second most popular cryptocurrency. XRP, on the other hand, has significantly fewer active addresses. In the last week, its median number of active addresses was just 5,204.





Trailing close behind Ethereum was Bitcoin Cash (BCH), in third place. Averaged over the last seven days, Bitcoin Cash had 19,713 active wallet addresses each day.





Of the five cryptocurrencies we considered, that only leaves EOS. Much in the same way as Ethereum, EOS aims to serve as a platform for decentralized applications (DApps), meaning many of its transactions are not necessarily financial in nature.





EOS is somewhat of an enigma when it comes to daily active addresses. As shown on our chart, it boasted extremely high numbers during certain periods of time. At other times, it paled in comparison to Ethereum. Looking at the median over the last week, EOS had 63,326 wallet addresses participating in its blockchain each day.





Ultimately, no one metric can be used to quantify the cryptocurrency industry. Still, looking at active wallet addresses sheds light on how popular some of the leading cryptocurrencies actually are.







