The crypto world gained 17 million new verified users in 2018, nearly a double from the 18 million in 2017 to current 35 million this year, according to the 2nd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study by the University of Cambridge. According to the study, millions of new users entered to the crypto ecosystem, however, most of them remain passive, "total user accounts at service providers now exceed 139 million with at least 35 million identity-verified users, the latter growing nearly 4X in 2017 and doubling again in the first three quarters of 2018." "Only 38 per cent of all users can be considered active, although definitions and criteria of activity levels vary significantly across service providers," the study highlights. It could be seen as contradictory, but the crypto market is healthy as crypto users have nearly doubled in 2018, while Bitcoin and altcoins have lost nearly 80% of its value. What's the meaning of this? One conclusion analysts have made is that the increasing number of users will provide a signal that the deep market downturn will eventually stop and it will recover at a certain point. Remember that most users are speculators and long-term investors that are driven by cryptocurrency volatility. Crypto users, accounts, regulation, and multi-coin solutions On this regard, multi-coin support is expanding at a faster pace in 2018, as it has nearly doubled from 47% of all service providers in 2017 to the 84% of firms that provide multi-coin platforms in 2018. "A trend primarily driven by the emergence of common standards on some crypto asset platforms (e.g. ERC-20 on Ethereum) that has resulted in a rapid increase in the supply of tokens, airdrops and forks," the study says. On platforms, the number of crypto accounts has increased too, that being said, remember that a user can hold multiple accounts. According to the study, data indicates that majority of users are individuals that could be "hobbyist retail investors, consumers, or users seeking a better investment or payment alternative." But not business or funds clients. Finally, the report found that self-regulation efforts are reflecting a growing industry maturity. "The increasing number of self-regulatory initiatives, combined with the emergence of sophisticated and professional services, reflect the growing maturity of the industry." Since the first months of 2017, the crypto ecosystem market capitalisation jumped from $30 billion to over $800 billion at its peak in January 2018, until it came down again to move around $200 billion by the time of publication. The report, wrote by Michel Rauchs, Apolline Blandin, Kristina Klein, Gina Pieters, Martino Recanatini, and Bryan Zhang, gathers survey data from more than 180 crypto assets companies and individuals, covering 180 startups of 47 countries in five world regions. The Cambridge study was focused on mining, exchange, storage, and payments, and regulation.