Ethereum continues on a path of more adoption as the asset has seen the addition of over 5 million new and unique addresses added over the past 30 days. This comes as bitcoin continues to record declines in the number of active addresses in the network.

Ethereum remains the largest smart contracts network and the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world. According to a data compilation released recently, between June 6 and July 6, Ethereum has added 5.37 million new and unique addresses on its network. These addresses add up to an average of 173,000 addresses added every single day for the month-long period.

Related Reading | Ethereum Upgrades Could Jumpstart $40 Billion Staking Industry, JP Morgan

Currently, the number of unique ethereum addresses now sits at approximately 162.2 million. The recent increase in demand for ethereum has been the key driver in the meteoric rise in the number of addresses being registered by investors.

The increase in demand has been due to a number of changes and upgrades being made to the ethereum ecosystem. And with the changes and upgrades have come new opportunities for customers to earn cryptocurrencies while helping to make the network more secure and efficient.

Ethereum London Hard Fork

One of the factors behind the increased demand for ETH has been the London hard fork. The fork promises noticeable changes and improvement in the network and thus, investors have gravitated towards ethereum given how much better this would make using the network.

According to this article by Binance, the ethereum London hard fork is a scheduled update to the Ethereum blockchain. This upgrade was scheduled to come soon after the Berlin hard fork which had taken place in April of 2020. The London upgrade will make significant changes to the ethereum network.

Ethereum price down even as demand grows | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

The most prominent of these changes would be to the ethereum transaction fee system. This has been a problem of the network for a long time. During times of high traffic and congestion in the network, transactions fees would skyrocket and confirmation times would be slowed down.

With the London hard fork will come a decrease in the difficulty of mining coins. The hard fork will further prepare the network for the pending move from proof of work to proof of stake, resulting in a more energy-efficient system for miners and investors at large.

ETH 2.0 Staking

Staking is also another reason for the massive demand for ethereum. Given the move to ETH 2.0, investors have gotten the chance to stake their coins to be network validators while earning coins in return for providing this service.

Ahead of the complete move to ETH 2.0, there has been an increase in the number of ETH holders in the space. In order for an investor to be a validator, they would require 32 ETH to run their own nodes.

If one does not hold 32 ETH, they can pool their ethereum with other investors to make a complete node and the rewards for the node will be split amongst the coin owners.

Related Reading | Ethereum Tests $2,300 Range As Market Adds $70 Billion

This is fast becoming a way for coin holders to make passive income from the market. With yearly returns going as high as 13% in some cases.

New and old investors alike are clamoring to take advantage of this opportunity as the closer to the date for the complete move nears, the lower the yearly APY on staked coins will be. Predictions put the staking industry to reach $40 billion by 2025.

The Ethereum London hard fork is now scheduled for August 4th as investors wait anxiously for the fast-approaching date.

Featured image from Crypto News, chart from TradingView.com