New vs returning wallets across Ethereum, Solana, NEAR, Polygon and Sui
Post196 words
Compares 3-month new vs returning wallet trends. Real growth is new-wallet gains followed by rising returning wallets; Solana's new wallets rose while returning fell, and Sui's both declined, reading as churn.
Key claims
Ethereum 71% returning, Solana 41%, NEAR 92%
Solana new wallets 1.24M to 1.54M while returning fell 1.13M to 1.06M
Polygon spiked to 2.81M on Dec 18
“New wallets” is the loud metric. “Returning wallets” is the quiet one.
A few patterns stand out during the last 3 months:
➤ Ethereum: avg 142k new/day vs 349k returning/day (71% returning). New wallets rise from 114k to 212k, while returning stays around 350k. Acquisition improved in 3m window, but retention didn’t expand much
➤ @solana: avg 1.73M new/day vs 1.19M returning/day (41% returning). New wallets trend up (1.24M to 1.54M), while returning trends down (1.13M to 1.06M). The new-wallet growth doesn't translate into the same step-up in returning activity.
➤ @NEARProtocol: avg 219k new/day vs~2.62M returning/day (92% returning). Activity is dominated by an existing base; onboarding is comparatively small here.
➤ @0xPolygon PoS: avg 423k vs 1.30M by the end, with spikes up to 2.81M (Dec 18). That gap usually indicates a discrete driver (campaign/product/event or measurement/tagging change) rather than “steady organic onboarding.”
➤ @SuiNetwork: both new and returning decline (610k vs 141k new; 561k vs 386k returning). That reads more like churn than growth.
A simple check: real growth is when new-wallet increases are followed by a sustained rise in returning wallets. Churn is when new wallets stay high but returning wallets don’t expand.
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How the covered assets moved · since 27 Dec 2025
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