Foreign media: Bitcoin has become the fastest growing and most widely held financial asset in history

The number of crypto users has doubled over the past six months, reaching 221 million by the end of June, according to new research from Hong Kong-based fast-growing crypto exchange Crypto.com.

“In June 2021, there were 221 million Crypto users worldwide. It took only four months to increase from 100 million to 200 million Crypto users worldwide. In contrast, it took nine months to increase from 65 million to 100 million users since we launched the initiative.”

The exchange used on-chain data and other metrics from 24 of the world’s largest crypto exchanges to summarize the data, which showed that the crypto market’s growth accelerated in the first half of this year.

According to the exchange, as of May 2020, the total number of Crypto users has exceeded 66 million. As the world's largest Crypto token, Bitcoin led the competition in the first two months. However, in May this year, the number of other Cryptos surged, resulting in a significant increase in the number of users, replacing Bitcoin.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor noted: “Bitcoin is now held by 114 million people, making it the fastest growing and most widely held financial asset in world history.”

The number of Bitcoin users increased from 143 million at the end of April to 221 million in June.

Growth began in the second quarter of 2020. The development of the Crypto market in the second half of 2020, including the Bitcoin "halving", accelerated the growth of Crypto adoption users in 2021.

Other notable events that followed included the rise of DeFi, PayPal’s adoption of Crypto, and, most notably, an increase in institutional investment, including MicroStrategy and Grayscale.

"Heavyweights such as Tesla and Mastercard have taken steps to adopt Crypto, and in March this year, Visa partnered with a Crypto exchange to settle transactions in Crypto. In addition, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender." The data also specifically highlights the performance of Bitcoin in the three months of January, February and April, when Bitcoin set an all-time high, making it Bitcoin's best performing month to date.

However, in May this year, Elon Musk’s comments about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining caused Bitcoin and Ethereum to plummet, while other cryptocurrencies surged.

“New challengers like the PoS consensus mechanism and meme tokens showed great potential in May, especially after Bitcoin mining received more attention.”

Bitcoin and Ethereum Lose Market Share. According to the study, there is a broader decentralization phenomenon in the market, with Bitcoin and Ethereum losing their dominance in the market as users pay more attention to crypto trends.

“Other crypto adoption is likely due to an influx of new users, such as SHIB and DOGE.”