Data source: Public chain Research page
Public Chain Research Report in June 2024
In June, the cryptocurrency market experienced significant challenges. Bitcoin has been under pressure from the upcoming Mt. Gox compensation payments and government liquidation, leading to heightened market uncertainty. Despite positive signals from the push for a U.S. spot Ethereum ETF, the total market capitalization of public chain tokens still recorded a 7.7% decline, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the decline. However, Toncoin, TRON, and Kaspa are exceptions and have seen growth. At the same time, the total locked volume (TVL) of the public chain fell by 18.7%, but Core Chain achieved significant growth. In terms of scaling solutions, Ethereum’s Layer 2 and Bitcoin’s scaling solutions perform differently, and Solana’s game Layer 2 project Sonic has also joined the Layer 2 track.
The data for this report comes from Footprint Analytics' public chain research page. This page provides an easy-to-use dashboard that contains the most critical statistics and indicators for understanding the public chain field and is updated in real time.
1. Crypto Market Overview
Continued selling pressure from multiple sources has dealt a heavy blow to Bitcoin. On June 24, the Mt. Gox bankruptcy liquidation trustee announced that the repayment of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) will start in July 2024, which has caused widespread uncertainty in the market about the conversion of creditors' assets into fiat currency and the specific timetable. At the same time, the US spot Bitcoin ETF saw a net outflow of funds in the second half of June.
Government-level initiatives are also not to be overlooked. A German government agency began liquidating bitcoins confiscated in 2013 and transferred nearly 4,000 bitcoins to exchanges in June. Meanwhile, the U.S. government also transferred 3,940 bitcoins seized from the wallet of a convicted drug dealer to Coinbase.
While the spot Ethereum ETF in the U.S. market is progressing smoothly, Bitcoin’s weakness seems to be spreading to the entire crypto market.
2. Overview of Public Chain
In June, the cryptocurrency market experienced a significant correction. By the end of the month, the total market value of public chain cryptocurrencies fell by 7.7% month-on-month, finally settling at US$1.95 trillion. Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana continue to dominate the market, with their market shares of 63.3%, 21.2%, 4.4%, and 3.5% respectively.
Data source: Market capitalization of public chain tokens in June 2024
The price of Bitcoin fell from $67,730 at the beginning of the month to $62,795 at the end of the month, a drop of 7.3%. The price of Ethereum also fell, from $3,820 at the beginning of the month to $3,444 at the end of the month, a drop of 9.8%.
Data source: Bitcoin and Ethereum price trends
Although token prices generally declined in June, three of the top fifteen public chain tokens by market value bucked the trend and saw increases in both price and market value. They are Toncoin, TRON, and Kaspa.
Toncoin stood out with the Open League token incentive program launched by TON and the growing popularity of Telegram games. Toncoin reached an all-time high of $8.2 in mid-June, bucking the trend.
TRON token prices rose by 10.8% throughout the month, returning to mid-May levels and continuing the upward trend that began in February 2024.
Kaspa, a Layer 1 network using the blockDAG (Block Directed Acyclic Graph) architecture, achieved significant growth in token prices in June, with an increase of 37.7% and hitting a record high of $0.19 on June 30. Kaspa’s growing appeal is evident from Bitcoin mining giant MARA’s expansion of its mining operations into Kaspa, a move that marks MARA’s official transformation into a multi-currency cryptocurrency mining enterprise.
Data source: Public chain token price and market value at the end of June 2024
As of the end of June, the TVL of public chains dropped to $72.2 billion, down 18.7% from May. In this field, Ethereum, TRON, and BNB Chain continue to maintain their leading positions.
Among the top fifteen public chains, only TON’s TVL increased by 106.8%, while other chains all declined.
Among other public chains, Core Chain stood out, with its TVL achieving an astonishing 227.7% growth in one month. This significant growth momentum comes on the heels of Coinbase adding CORE to its roadmap at the end of May. In order to support BTCfi, Core Chain has taken a series of positive measures, including launching the Core Ignition Drop and hosting the BTCfi Summer hackathon event. It has also successfully attracted more DeFi projects to join, driving the rapid growth of its TVL.
Data source: TVL of public chains at the end of June 2024
In addition, the Solana Foundation has launched cutting-edge tools designed to transform websites, applications, social media, and QR codes into starting points for crypto transactions on the Solana blockchain. Among them, the "Actions" tool allows users to complete on-chain transactions directly on web pages, social platforms, and QR codes, while "Blinks" converts these transactions into shareable links to promote the widespread dissemination of on-chain interactions. Together, these tools transform the Internet into a distributed network of on-chain interactions and accelerate Solana's mainstream adoption.
3. Development of major Layer 1 public chains in June 2024
1）BNB Chain
BNB price hit an all-time high of $710.
BNB Chain completes the Haber hard fork upgrade, gas fees are expected to be reduced by up to 90%.
2) Salty
21Shares has filed an S-1 filing with the US SEC for the Solana ETF.
3）NEAR
NEAR Foundation establishes Nuffle Labs and receives $13 million in funding.
3）Sui
Sui Foundation: Sui Bridge testnet is now online and an incentive plan has been launched.
4）Polygon
Digital identity solution Polygon ID has spun out from Polygon Labs and rebranded as Privado ID.
5）Ronin
Ronin announced plans to develop a Layer 2 solution using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK).
4、Layer 2
In June, despite some progress in the US spot Ethereum ETF, Ethereum Layer 2 still faces a downward trend under the pressure of the market correction. Arbitrum and Optimism, as leaders in the field, saw their TVLs drop by 10.5% and 22.2% month-on-month, respectively. On the other hand, with the end of the Phase 1 airdrop event, Blast's TVL also decreased by 22.0%. In contrast, Base and Linea's TVLs remained relatively stable, close to the level in May.
However, Scroll saw significant growth, with its TVL soaring 42.8%. This positive change comes on the heels of the launch of the Scroll Sessions Airdrop Points program, which officially launched on June 21st. Among them, Session One aims to incentivize liquidity, especially rewarding DeFi users who provide liquidity in DEX.
Data source: Ethereum Layer 2 Overview in June 2024 - Rollups (Bridge Related Indicators)
In June, airdrops became a hot topic in the Ethereum Layer 2 space, including zkSync, Blast, and LayerZero's popular airdrops in other fields. Although these airdrops have attracted widespread attention and discussion on social media, they have also been accompanied by a lot of controversy. zkSync has been criticized for its long airdrop cycle and perceived unfair distribution. LayerZero has encountered opposition for its strict anti-"sybil" measures and the requirement to donate before receiving rewards. As for Blast, its complex reward mechanism and the gap between actual rewards and expectations have made participants dissatisfied, which has led to a strong backlash in the community.
Despite all the controversy, airdrops have remained a valuable marketing tool in the crypto ecosystem. They are not only effective in attracting new users, but also in generating buzz in the community and motivating users to participate. To further optimize future airdrops, we should focus on increasing transparency, ensuring fairness, and streamlining the process.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin scaling solutions have seen a surge in TVL since the fourth quarter of 2023, with Merlin Chain, Bitlayer, and Rootstock being the standouts. Despite the market correction in June, the Bitcoin ecosystem has enjoyed a vibrant summer of innovation.
Data source: Bitcoin Ecosystem TVL
5. Development of major Layer 2 public chains in June 2024
1) Decision
Affected by the ZRO (LayerZero) airdrop, Arbitrum's daily revenue and profits both hit new highs.
2）Optimism
Optimism announced on the X platform that OP Stack has officially entered Stage 1.
3）Starknet
StarkWare announced on the X platform that its Layer 3 will be launched soon.
4）Blast
The Blast Foundation was established and the Blast Vision was subsequently made public.
5）Rootstock
SushiSwap expands to Rootstock.
6）Merlin Chain
Merlin Chain launches 210 million MERL ecological incentive plan.
6. Blockchain Games
In June, there were 1,580 active games on various chains, among which BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum led with 22.4%, 19.5%, and 16.1% market shares respectively.
Meanwhile, among the 3 million DAUs, Ronin, Polygon, and NEAR continued to lead, but they also faced many challenges. Ronin’s DAU share was affected by Pixels, falling from 29.8% at the beginning of the month to 18.4% at the end of the month. As for Polygon, its DAU share also shrank from 15.1% to 8.0% due to a 31.6% month-on-month drop in the DAU of its largest DAU game, Matr1x FIRE.
Oasys’ Layer 2 Saakuru Verse saw significant DAU growth in the last ten days of June. The successful launch of Copycat Killer, Panic and Parkour Battle by Web3 game publisher PlayGround has greatly promoted the surge in DAU on the Saakuru Verse chain, which jumped from 18,000 on June 21 to 464,000 on June 30. The average DAU in the last week was as high as 379,000. If this growth momentum continues, Saakuru Verse is expected to quickly become one of the top three blockchain platforms by DAU.
On the other hand, opBNB also performed well in the last week of June, with an average DAU of 285,000, accounting for nearly 10% of all DAUs.
Data source: Daily active users of various public chain blockchain games
The public blockchain space is actively strengthening its gaming ecosystem, with specific measures including launching special Grant programs for Web3 game developers. At the same time, building more chains has become a popular strategy. Ronin recently announced plans to build Layer 2 using the Polygon Development Kit (CDK), indicating that popular games such as Axie Infinity and Pixels are expected to run on their own game chains in the future. This move coincides with the strategies taken by platforms such as Avalanche, Oasys and SKALE. So, will this strategy and similar practices succeed? We will continue to pay attention.
For more data, see "Blockchain Game Research Report for June 2024: Pixels cause DAU fluctuations, and industry user retention rates vary significantly."
7. Financing
In June, the public blockchain sector completed 11 rounds of financing, with a cumulative amount of US$71.5 million, a decrease of 20.3% from the previous month. Among them, the specific amounts of three rounds of financing were not disclosed.
Public chain financing events in June 2024 (data source: crypto-fundraising.info)
Decent Land Labs has successfully raised $3 million in funding to develop WeaveVM, an innovative sovereign Layer 1 blockchain solution that not only solves the storage problem of EVM, but also cleverly combines the compatibility of EVM with the powerful scalable storage capabilities provided by Arweave.
Sonic, a Solana Layer 2 network focused on gaming, has successfully raised $12 million in Series A funding to deepen its gaming-centric network. Initially starting as a mobile game on Solana, Sonic quickly identified infrastructure bottlenecks and decisively transformed to build an efficient gaming Layer 2 solution.
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The content of this article is for industry research and communication purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. The market is risky and investment should be cautious.
