• Global crypto users crossed the 500 million mark at the end of 2023. 
• Bitcoin maximalist Raulo Pal believes the number of users could hit 1 billion by 2025. 

After an impressive 60% rally in Q1 2024, Bitcoin [BTC] had a slight setback at the start of Q2. It dropped over 5%, slipping from $71K to $64.5K before attempting to reclaim $66K.  

Amidst the drawdown, Raulo Pal, a Bitcoin maximalist, reminded his X (formerly Twitter) followers that the crypto’s adoption rate could reach 1 billion users by 2025. 

“On days like today, just remember that crypto is still being adopted at twice the speed of the internet and should reach something like 1 billion users by the end of 2025.” 

Current crypto adoption rates

A 2023 report by Crypto.com exchange showed that global crypto users crossed the 500 million mark and hit 580M by December 2023.

“Global cryptocurrency owners increased by 34% in 2023, rising from 432 million in January to 580 million in December.”

Over the same period, Ethereum [ETH] owners surged from 89 million to 124 million. The report cited liquid staking for the growth. On the global scope, ETH owners constituted 21% of users. 

On the other hand, BTC owners increased from 222M to 296M and accounted for 51% of global users. The growth was linked to spot BTC ETFs and Bitcoin Ordinals. 

But, as per data from the digital currency payment platform Triple-A, there were around 420 million crypto users in 2023, with more than half (268M) coming from Asia.  

However, the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index report noted that most crypto adoption occurred in low and middle-income (LMI) countries in Asia and Africa in 2023.

LMI accounts for about 40% of the world’s population, which tipped Chainalysis to highlight that; 

“If LMI countries are the future, then the data indicates that crypto is going to be a big part of that future.”

That said, an explosive surge to 1 billion crypto users by 2025 could be a big deal for digital assets.