London, UK -- An analysis of crypto trading app download trends on the Google Play Store by app growth solutions company, SplitMetrics, suggests that the cryptocurrency sector has bounced back following a challenging year in 2023.
According to the study, which analysed data from the App Radar by SplitMetrics platform, the European cryptocurrency sector has grown by 94% with 1.6 million crypto trading apps downloaded in Q1 2024. In contrast, Q1 2023 saw only 814k downloads. Compared to Q4 2023, the number of Android downloads has also increased by 35%.
At the current rates of downloads, European crypto apps look set to near the high water mark set in 2022 when 7.2 million new users started crypto apps.
Outside of Europe, the top crypto apps have experienced a 41% increase in Android downloads in Q1 2024 when compared to the same period in 2023, and a 28% increase when compared to Q4 2023.
These are signs of growth for 2024 as the crypto sector is bouncing back from the lows of 2023. While the European crypto sector gained 3.8m Android users in 2023, it was a 48% decrease when compared to 2022’s 7.2m. Apps headquartered outside of Europe fared slightly better with a 14% decrease from 96m to 83m.
Cumulatively, crypto apps have reached nearly half a billion lifetime downloads (449m). While the sector experienced a 16% decrease in Android app downloads in 2023 - from 2022’s 104m to 2023’s 87m - the global crypto industry is showing signs of promising growth with an increase of 43% in Q1 2024 (30m) vs Q1 2023 (21m), and a 28% increase vs Q4 2023 (24m).
The top five apps with European HQs in Q1 2024 were: Luno (568k), Nexo (525k), Blockchain.com (218k), Bitpanda (104k) and Wirex (96k).
The top five apps with HQs outside Europe were: Binance (9.3m), Cash App (4.2m), Trust (3.3m), Bybit (2.6m) and OKX (2m),
In terms of lifetime downloads, the top apps with crypto trading functionality are: Binance (111m), Cash App (102m), Trust (47m), Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) (43m), and Crypto.com (38m).
Thomas Kriebernegg, General Manager, SplitMetrics Agency, said: “Crypto is back in a big way this year. The European crypto app market had a particularly challenging 2023 as it came off pandemic highs and significant falls in the price of Bitcoin. With the Bitcoin halving happening in April 2024, the crypto space will most likely gain a lot of traction during the year and when looking at the download numbers we can already get a sense for what might be happening this year.
“It is worth noting that there is a clear correlation between increases in the price of major crypto currencies and download numbers. People clearly don’t want to miss out on a crypto gold rush. The question for the industry is whether it can mature to the point where user growth numbers aren’t as heavily influenced by price fluctuations - put simply, can growth be more consistently sustained?
“Globally, crypto traders on Android will smash the half a billion mark this year - which is a notable milestone. Looking ahead, user acquisition is inevitably going to become more competitive and costly. Platforms will need to diversify their user bases and this means evolving and investing in their marketing to reach new audiences.”