103M+ User Operations were made in 2024

When you use an ERC-4337 account, you submit User Operations (UserOps) instead of transactions. These UserOps get grouped into bundle transactions that are executed onchain by Bundlers.

In 2024, 103M UserOps were executed. That's more than 10X the number of UserOps made in 2023 (8.3M).

The number of monthly UserOps peaked at 18.4M in August, then steadily declined to 9.8M in December.

21.8M accounts made a UserOp in 2023. But only 4.3M accounts made more than one UserOp.

The majority of accounts that were active in 2024 only transacted once. People farming sign-up rewards and similar token incentive schemes drove this “single-use” behaviour. Only a few apps inspired “repeat use” behaviour, convincing users to transact more than once.

Monthly active repeat-use accounts hit a high of 1M in October. Monthly active single-use accounts peaked earlier in the year in July.

Top 10 most used protocols

Here are the protocols that ERC-4337 accounts used the most this year:

Here is what the leaderboard looks like if we exclude the activity of single-use accounts:

Protocols like Piggybox and Cyberconnect attracted a lot of single-use account activity in 2024. They sit at the top of the overall leaderboard. But fall when we filter out single-use accounts they fall out the top 5. Piggybox is an NFT you get when you sign up for EARN'M, along with a lottery box that might contain EARNM token. Cyberconnect is a social app that had a heavily farmed airdrop. It's easy to see why protocols like these, which reward users even if they only transact once, struggle to retain them.

Trends in Repeat-use Accounts Activity

Anichess, a chess game where you can earn NFTs, was the most popular app amongst repeat-use accounts in Q1.

In Q2, Alfafrens, a social app where users can stake ALFA to earn DEGEN, briefly took the top spot before being overtaken by Blocklords, a strategy game with onchain elements.

Blocklords usage blew up in Q3 and drove a 5X+ increase in monthly active repeat-use accounts. Then, a social app called OpenSocial took most of the market share. By the end of the year, a mobile game called SuperChamps had flipped OpenSocial for first place.

55% of Repeat-use accounts transacted on Base

Base was the second largest chain by smart account usage overall, with 3.7M accounts transacting in 2024. Polygon was first with 16.6M.

But Base had the most repeat-use accounts. 2.4M accounts made more than one UserOp on Base in 2024.

59M bundle transactions were made in 2024

The role of a Bundler is to package UserOps into bundle transactions. The number of monthly bundle transactions consistently increased month-over-month throughout the year.

Top 5 Bundlers

Here are the Bundlers who had the most activity in 2024

24% of the bundles made in 2024 contained more than one UserOp

When bundles contain multiple UserOps, smart account users save money because the cost of the bundle transaction is shared between all the UserOps. Bundlers also benefit because they spend less by making fewer transactions while charging the same gas premium on every UserOp. But there isn't always enough UserOp volume to fill bundles with multiple UserOps.

In 2024, the monthly percentage of bundle transactions with multiple UserOps grew from 2.5% in January to a peak of 49% in August, then fell to 23% at the end of the year. This is an improvement from 2023 when most months didn't exceed 10%.

Bundler Market Share

From January to May, Biconomy was the top Bundler by UserOps executed. This is because they were the exclusive Bundler for apps like Anichess and Alfafrens, which peaked in usage around that time.

Alchemy briefly took the #1 spot in June, thanks to UserOp flow from Piggybox. Then Coinbase’s market share surged in July because Blocklords used their bundler. Alchemy retook the top spot in September and October because of Opensocial.

Pimlico jumped to first place for the last two months of the year because they bundled for apps on Thirdweb’s developer SDK.

Apps and Users have spent more than $3.4M on UserOp fees through Paymasters

Paymaster contracts allow applications to set up custom gas fee policies for their users.

Apps can let users pay for gas using ERC-20 tokens or they can cover the gas fees on behalf of their users.

Top 5 Paymasters

Here are the Paymasters who had the most spending this year:

87% of all UserOps were paid for using a Paymaster

Most of the UserOps made in 2024 were paid for using a paymaster. This means that either the app/wallet/L2 subsidized the fees or user paid their fees using an ERC20 token.

58% of accounts were deployed using Alchemy's factory contracts

Most ERC-4337 accounts are created using a factory contract. A factory is a smart contract that generates other smart contracts. In 2024, 58% of all new accounts were deployed using the Alchemy LightAccount factory.

38% of the accounts that got multiple uses were deployed with the SimpleAccount Factory

SimpleAccount is a factory that was developed by the Ethereum Foundation. Blocklords used this factory to deploy their accounts and that pushed it to the top spot on the repeat-use account leaderboard.