Out of every four wallets actively using Ethereum a year ago, roughly one is still showing up. That might not sound like a ringing endorsement, but in crypto, where user loyalty has the half-life of a meme coin, it’s actually the best retention rate in the industry.
A new CoinGecko analysis covering 11 major blockchains found that Ethereum posted a 26.2% user retention rate for wallets active in Q1 2025 that remained active in Q1 2026. No other chain came close on a percentage basis. But here’s the thing: percentage-based retention and absolute user numbers are two very different animals, and the gap between them tells a story worth unpacking.
The retention numbers, in context
CoinGecko’s methodology tracked wallets that completed at least five successful transactions during Q1 2025, then checked whether those same wallets were still transacting in Q1 2026. Ethereum’s 26.2% rate translated to 682,240 retained users out of approximately 2.6 million qualifying wallets.
BNB Chain retained 1,494,233 wallets over the same period. Solana held onto 1,394,873. Both figures dwarf Ethereum’s 682,240 in absolute terms, meaning those networks kept more actual humans (or bots, but we’ll get to that) transacting on-chain.
