Going into 2023, the cryptocurrency market seemingly shrugged off the year-long bearish sentiment of 2022. As investors took notice, the long-awaited price corrections got a significant reaction, which was shown through activities in chain on Ethereum blockchain.
According to an Analytex data report, the average price of Ethereum gasoline, calculated in terms of the smallest Ether (ETH) denomination, gwei, rose 29.27% in January 2023. The report compares the prices of gasoline in January and December 2022 and sees an increase in user activity as a key indicator of the increase in the average price of gas from 19.2 gwei to 24.82 gwei month on month.
The report also notes that the average number of unique daily active Ethereum wallets decreased by around 10% to 387,475, the lowest number in the last six months. Meanwhile, the average number of unique active smart contracts increased by 6.74%.
As shown above, other important metrics measured include Ethereum daily transaction data, which showed a slight decline of 0.8% from December to January. The report notes that the average number of Ethereum transactions per day has been declining for eight months.
Related: ‘Decentralized Infura’ Can Help Prevent Ethereum App Crashes: Interview
Ethereum block statistics show that the average number of blocks mined each day showed little to no change, while the total block size per month increased by 7%. After The Merge, the daily average block data has been stable at around 0.01% per month. Ethereum’s total block size per month for January was 17.24 GB, up 7.08% from December’s total of 16.1 GB.
The report highlights contrasting data metrics across the board. The number of transactions and the number of unique active wallets decreased from December. Meanwhile, the Ethereum activity index, the number of active smart contracts, and the average cost of gas prices have increased.
Analytex suggests that this indicates “increased interest from both current blockchain users and smart contract developers.”
As Cointelegraph previously reported, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols saw an increase in total value locked across different stake pools in January, according to a report by DappRadar. The market reached $74.6 billion in staked assets, increasing 26% from December.
The impending Ethereum upgrade in Shanghai is also driving participation in DeFi due to the expected opening of withdrawals from Ethereum participation contracts. Lido Finance made Maker DAO the largest DeFi protocol in January, fueled by the popularity of liquid staking derivatives protocols.
