November 2024 Public Chain Research Report
Author: Stella L (stella@footprint.network)
Data source: Footprint Analytics Public Chain Research Page
In November 2024, the blockchain industry finally welcomed a 'big bull market', with Bitcoin continuously setting new price highs and about to break through the important $100,000 mark, while its market capitalization surpassed that of silver and major traditional assets. At the same time, Ethereum also achieved a strong recovery, with altcoins showing significant rebounds. While Bitcoin Layer 2 continues to grow strongly, Ethereum Layer 2's growth is relatively moderate in the face of increasingly intense competition.
The data in this report comes from Footprint Analytics' Public Chain Research Page, which provides an easy-to-use dashboard that includes the most critical statistics and metrics in the public chain sector and is updated in real-time.
Market Overview
The cryptocurrency market created history in November, with Bitcoin's price astonishingly soaring from $69,386 to $96,427, an increase of 39.0%. Ethereum followed closely, rising 47.8%, from $2,511 to $3,711. Bitcoin's outstanding performance allowed its market capitalization to surpass that of silver and Saudi Aramco, maintaining a steady position as the seventh largest global asset after approaching the $100,000 mark on November 23.
Data source: Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Trends
The results of the U.S. election have become a catalyst for growth in the crypto market, potentially impacting comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation and regulatory oversight. The market reacted positively, especially reflected in the performance of popular sectors such as memecoins, decentralized artificial intelligence (deAI) projects, and decentralized science (DeSci).
The broader financial market also performed strongly. The financial sector led the stock market amid expectations of U.S. tax reform and deregulation. However, the international market experienced some volatility, with the renminbi under pressure amid concerns about potential increased tariffs from the U.S., while gold prices fell as election-related uncertainties eased.
Layer 1
In November 2024, the total market capitalization of blockchain surged by 41.1% to $2.8 trillion. While Bitcoin maintained its dominance with a 68.1% share, this was a decrease from 70.1% in October, as altcoins also performed strongly this month. Ethereum reversed its downward trend, with a market share of 15.9% (an absolute increase of 0.6%), while Solana surpassed BNB Chain with a share of 4.0%.
Against the backdrop of Bitcoin continuously setting price records, altcoins demonstrated outstanding performance. Stellar (XLM) led with a 466.8% increase, followed by Hedera (HBAR) up 269.7%, Cardano (ADA) up 201.5%, and Polkadot (DOT) up 130.7%. The surge of Stellar significantly reflects the market's growing attention to its cross-border remittance infrastructure and CBDC capabilities, which may be influenced by expectations of regulatory clarity after the U.S. elections.
Data source: Public Chain Token Prices and Market Capitalization
The TVL in the DeFi space grew by 43.0% in November to $90.8 billion. Ethereum led this growth with an increase of 61.6%, while Tron and Solana ranked second and third, respectively. Although most of the top 15 chains by TVL showed growth, Polygon declined by 5.9% due to capital outflows from Polymarket after the U.S. presidential elections. TON continued its downward trend since October, attributed to weakening momentum in Telegram games and meme activities.
Data source: Public Chain TVL
The Move technology stack blockchain continues to maintain strong momentum. Sui has reached new highs in token price and market capitalization while forming a strategic partnership with renowned financial institution Franklin Templeton. Aptos is driving on-chain activity growth through its meme launch platform Emojicoin. Meanwhile, Movement is set to launch its mainnet, with impressive testnet data: according to Movement Explorer, there are over 6.6 million accounts and 153 million transactions.
Stablecoins remain one of the focal points on the stage. USDS, as the first major DeFi native stablecoin, launched on Solana, while Ripple is reportedly about to receive approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for RLUSD. As the influence of stablecoins continues to grow, the industry is paying attention to whether some companies will issue their own blockchains. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino tweeted that his company would remain neutral rather than launch its own blockchain, responding to industry concerns.
Bitcoin Layer 2 & Sidechains
In November 2024, Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechains achieved significant growth, with total TVL reaching $2.4 billion, an increase of 34.6% from October. Competition among major platforms for Bitcoin liquidity intensified.
Core strengthened its market leadership, with TVL increasing by 55.7% to $890 million, expanding its market share to 37.4%. This growth was driven by the Fusion upgrade in November, which introduced dual staking and liquidity Bitcoin staking (LstBTC), allowing users to achieve higher returns while maintaining liquidity on Core's BTCfi platform.
Bitlayer maintained its second position with a TVL of $580 million, but its market share fell to 24.4%. BSquared continued to grow, with a monthly increase of 53.1% to a TVL of $260 million, rising to third place, while Rootstock ranked fourth with a TVL of $240 million.
Data source: Bitcoin Ecosystem Public Chain TVL
At the BTCfi project level, Pell Network became the leader with a TVL of $400 million, followed by Avalon Finance (Bitlayer and Core) and DeSyn (Bitlayer) with strong performances across multiple chains, each surpassing $200 million in TVL.
Ethereum Layer 2
In November 2024, the total TVL of Ethereum Layer 2 solutions (excluding bridge-related metrics) reached $27.5 billion, an increase of 2.0% from October, continuing to lag behind the growth rate of Bitcoin scaling solutions.
Data source: November 2024 Ethereum Layer 2 Overview — Rollups (Bridge-related Metrics)
Arbitrum One maintained its leadership position, with TVL reaching $11.3 billion and a market share of 41.0%, while Base surpassed Optimism to claim second place, with a TVL of $5.1 billion and a share of 18.6%. This surge was driven by the activity brought by the Clanker social meme deployment platform based on Farcaster and the Virtuals Protocol platform for creating and deploying AI agents. Meanwhile, Optimism's market share fell to 17.3%.
Starknet TVL grew by 5.1%, surpassing Blast to rank fourth, while Blast continued to decline, dropping 14.5%. Starknet's growth was attributed to the launch of STRK staking on November 26 and CEO Eli Ben Sasson's commitment to significantly enhance performance in the next quarter. Meanwhile, World Chain performed excellently, with TVL increasing by 131.4% to $570 million.
In November, the Ethereum Foundation, under public pressure, strengthened financial transparency by publishing its 2024 report while outlining its core values and funding strategies. Vitalik Buterin emphasized the future development of Ethereum, including the implementation of DAS to enhance Layer 2 scalability and infrastructure improvements to support diverse applications from ENS to consumer payments.
Blockchain Game Public Chains
In November, the number of active blockchain games increased by 4.6% to 1,696. BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum maintained market leadership in game distribution, with shares of 20.9%, 15.4%, and 13.4%, respectively.
User engagement patterns have changed, with opBNB, Ronin, and Nebula (SKALE) leading with average daily active users (DAU) of 1.8 million, 900,000, and 400,000, respectively. opBNB's DAU grew by 46.1%, driven by SERAPH: In The Darkness and MEET48, and by some games migrating from BNB Chain to opBNB. At the same time, Ronin showed a strong recovery through the launch of the new game Fableborne and the resurgence of Lumiterra.
Data source: Proportion of Active Blockchain Games on Various Public Chains
Games based on Telegram showed mixed results. While the TON ecosystem faced challenges, with DAU declining by 41.9% to 116,400, Sui saw a reversal, with DAU increasing by 23.1% to 233,300, mainly due to the success of BIRDS and notable user retention metrics.
Data source: BIRDS Game New User Weekly Retention Rate
For more data insights, please refer to (November 2024 Blockchain Game Research Report: The Path of GameFi Breaking Through Under Bull Market Support).
Financing Situation
In November 2024, the blockchain sector recorded 12 financing events, with a total amount of $79.8 million, a decrease of 23.3% compared to October, marking the lowest monthly figure since August. Among these, five events did not disclose specific financing amounts.
November 2024 Public Chain Financing Events (Data Source: crypto-fundraising.info)
Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs) became the largest recipient of financing this month, announcing that it secured $40 million in seed funding and a $250 million token purchase commitment. The company has shifted from its initial positioning as a modular blockchain provider to a crypto AI startup, developing a decentralized AI operating system (dAIOS) for building AI applications on-chain.
Several Layer 1 blockchains received financing this month, including Cytonic, Pharos, Talus Network, EtraPay, and Datalayer. Notably, AvaCloud, a managed blockchain service provider built by Ava Labs, acquired EtraPay, gaining a team of renowned privacy technology experts and the innovative crypto token standard Encrypted ERC (eERC).
The Layer 2 ecosystem continues to maintain investment activity, with six projects receiving new rounds of financing, including Bitcoin Layer 2's Bitfinity and Lnfi Network, Ethereum Layer 2's Heurist and Corn, and other Layer 2 projects Akave and AgentLayer.
