How are the two major chains doing in the last period? Is the Bitcoin dominance growing or Ethereum is closing in? Let’s take a look.


 

![01.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23tmDV9J5VLfSfjAtU9xH665RtMKuPRKrvZ8iqPiy2Ur3dJqoJKCqgCgcVVfptwyZ4hr4.png)
<sup> *Image background generated with Midjoureny*</sup>


We will be looking at data for:
-	Unique wallets
-	Active wallets
-	Number of daily transactions 
-	Fees
-	Market cap and BTC dominance


**The data is extracted from https://www.blockchain.com/charts and https://ethscan.com/, for the period July 2015 – June 2023.**

Bitcoin is around since 2009, but Ethereum started with operation in 2015 and from then forward we will be making the comparisons. 



## Number of Unique Wallets Created

Here is the chart for the number of unique wallets on Bitcoin and Ethereum. 



 
![image001.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23t77MHnei9ytL7tfoPit915j7Vykat5Mu7eFP9iXSjNSnXSYCzGURhRmv6CXoFwJsAEG.png)




Ethereum took the lead in the number of wallets back in January 2018 and it has been increasing the lead ever since. 

In January 2018 the number of Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets was just above 20M. Today Bitcoin has **87M** wallets and Ethereum **235M**. Ethereum is leading in terms of number of wallets and has the highest numbers in the industry. 
Note that, wallets are free and anonymous on both chains and therefore can be created in bulk and even as spam.


## Active Wallets

The above was in terms of wallets created. How about active wallets? How many of those wallets created are actually been used? Here is the chart. 



![image003.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23tbPhAmrT6Pwg4NC27uxNPZfkcWCqhWyq3uyfjGDQXAENdx9D6oXpnd2h8Va5vdYVsvS.png)





When we look at the numbers of active wallets Bitcoin is in the lead. Ethereum has come close to Bitcoin in the previous bull run, at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. On few occasions ETH has surpassed BTC in number of daily active wallets. It was close again in 2021, but since then BTC has performed better. 



### When we zoom in  2022-2023 we get this:


 


![image005.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23tkovaDwRe71NuRZ17Aj2zKQhpxs197kqL8Xy7RdnVdfdtvWkc4sqnCZybKRSGGfJX6r.png)




We can see a slow downtrend here for Ethereum, while the numbers for Bitcoin has been quite constant!


Bitcoin is leading and has increased its lead in the last period. Just recently it has come close to 800k DAUs.
On average, in the last period Bitcoin has around **620k** daily active wallets, while Ethereum is around **420k** daily active wallets.





## Number of Daily Transactions

Here is the chart for the number of daily transactions.



 

![image007.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23tGZw7bEMqRUi7xeywBrTVMgi3ftHcCYnVYjt5UhynKvmRid7XPYA3j5gTmmTLp7GGQ7.png)




In terms of daily transactions Ethereum is in a big lead in front of Bitcoin. 

Ethereum has overtaken Bitcoin in the previous bull run in 2017 and has been leading since then. In the last period Ethereum has more than **1M** transactions per day.

What’s interesting we can notice the spike in the Bitcoin transaction in the last period. This is due to the ordinal protocols, NFTs and tokens on Bitcoin. On occasion there were close to 700k transactions per day, but they have dropped and Bitcoin is now around 400k transactions per day. Still more than the previous period. 



### When we zoom in 2022-2023 we get this:


 



![image009.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/Eo8L8ur39XM3fy7vmTtyGiBLuJh53nwUJxi9uxZZ5h7uQK6TtUsenDGLiKgwghcBMuX.png)



We can see a steady numbers of transactions on Ethereum with a small decline, and then the spike in the Bitcoin transaction recently. 

As we know Ethereum as a smart contract’s platform has a lot of different operations and transactions that can be made on chain, while Bitcoin is used only for one purpose, and that is transferring tokens from one wallet to another. 

Ethereum has a smaller number of daily active wallets than Bitcoin, but obviously those wallets are making more transactions than the Bitcoin wallets.


## Fees

The chart for the fees in 2022 looks like this. 




![image013.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23tGZrNPoRqnnJpq6enzY5UbdiMpNrUCStG3QuAhuxqC2gQytua14h13vgj8AGDJhvq7r.png)

 


*These are the average daily fees per transaction in $ value.*


We can notice the volatility in the fees. Back in 2022, the fees on Ethereum were as high as 50$, and have dropped to few dollars at the end of the year. In 2023 fees on Ethereum increased a bit, reaching 20$ at one point and dropped again to around 5$. 

For Bitcoin, we can notice the sharp increase in May 2023. This again due to the NFS and tokens. At one point the fess on the Bitcoin network reached 30$. In the last period Bitcoin is in a close race with Ethereum when it comes to fees. In the past the Bitcoin fees were always cheaper. 

A significant decline for Ethereum, while Bitcoin remains almost at the same levels.

In the long run fees are essential for the chains as they will be the main source for incentives for miners/validators providing infrastructure. 



## Bitcoin And Ethereum Market Cap

The interesting topic for Bitcoin and Ethereum is *the flippening*, or will Ethereum surpass Bitcoin in terms of market cap and become no.1 crypto. 

Here is the historical chart for the Bitcoin VS Ethereum market cap. 




![image015.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dalz/23uFPkg1wmDSAW1AzvKqBwL4cnXEonZrNJGcpAHvcg24pfbM8t2kpkeiQXRAd6Bw7jPWB.png)

 



We can see that at first in 2015 Ethereum has a very low market cap compared to Bitcoin. As time progressed in the bull run of 2017 Ethereum has come close to the market cap of Bitcoin on few occasions, but only for a short period of time. 

In the last two years the ratio of the market cap for Bitcoin and Ethereum has been in a tight range around the **70%-30%** share. It seems that these two are now starting to be more stable when it comes to pricing in BTC vs ETH. 
Just in the last day, Bitcoin increased its dominance a bit, and now the ratio in the market cap is 72% BTC vs 28% ETH.

At the moment Ethereum has around **219 billions** market cap, while Bitcoin is around **566 billions**.



----

## Summary


ETH is leading when it comes to the numbers of wallets created, but the number of wallets active, BTC is in the lead. The number of transactions are higher on ETH, although BTC has seen some increase in activity in the last period. The fees on the Bitcoin network have went up, due to the ordinals protocol, NFTs and tokens. 

When it comes to the market cap, it seems that the 70% - 30% is a standard in the last years. There has been some ups and downs, but relatively stable when compared to the previous cycle. 

While these two chains art now totally different in design and function, Bitcoin seems stronger then ever and shows it can do things that Ethereum does as well.

All the best
@dalz