Ā Ā Ā Ā
A new project has taken the Cryptoverse by storm.Ā EthereumĀ Layer 2Ā BlastāsĀ TVL is nearing $2 billion ahead of its mainnet launch and an upcoming Blast airdrop at the end of the month. Notably, commenters argue that the protocol ā created by theĀ BLURĀ team ā already has an entire ecosystem ready to go.
Letās dive deeper.
Blast TVL Skyrocketing
Blast wasĀ introducedĀ on November 21.
Within 48 hours, the teamĀ saidĀ Blast TVL reached $230 million, with 37,131 users earning yield.
Moreover, that numberĀ hitĀ $570 million within a single week.
By Friday morning (UTC), Blastās TVL reached a whopping $1.841 billion.
Hence, given its current trajectory, itās reasonable to expect it could hit $2 billion in a matter of days.
Source: defillama.com/protocol/blast
From Blur to Blast
BlastĀ was created by the team behind the top NFT marketplaceĀ BLUR. More specifically, Tieshun Roquerre (akaĀ Pacman) created both.
Blur has quickly risen as a competitor toĀ OpenSea. Currently, it has $36.52 billion in total volume compared to OpenSeaās $9.03 billion,Ā perĀ DappRadar.
Meanwhile, the team members hail fromĀ FAANG,Ā Yale,Ā MIT,Ā Nanyang Technological University, andĀ Seoul National University. They have worked on major protocols in DeFi and Web3.
Moreover, Blast is backed by, among others, Paradigm and Standard Crypto,Ā raisingĀ $20 million from them.
Given its background, itās unsparing that many have high expectations from the project.
Earning Yield
BlastĀ is described as the only Ethereum L2 with native yield for ETH and stablecoins.
The yield comes from ETH staking and Real World Asset (RWA) protocols. While the default interest rate on L2s is typically 0%, itās 4% for ETH and 5% for stablecoins on Blast,Ā saysĀ the website.
āYour balance on Blast compounds automatically,ā the team noted.
Also, users who bridge stablecoins receiveĀ USDB, Blastās auto-rebasing stablecoin. The yield for USDB comes fromĀ MakerDAOāsĀ on-chain T-Bill protocol. It can be redeemed forĀ USDCĀ when bridging back to Ethereum.
The Blast mainnet launch isĀ scheduledĀ for February 2024, and points redemption for May 2024.
An Entire Ecosystem
āWe are seeing the ecosystem being formed right under our noses,ā collector MoonCat2878Ā wrote.
āOne of the biggest perks of being a depositor (bridger) into BLAST, is the fact that all new protocols, MEME coins and so on will want to draw that $ 1.5 billion TVL towards them.ā
Meme coins are a major point here.Ā PUMPĀ will be one of the most recognizable meme coins from day one, said the collector, arguing that it could become a $1 billion meme coin on BLAST.
Moreover, the PUMP team plans to airdrop 10% of the supply towards bridgers. āI am sure all of the others will follow them.ā
Popular digital art collector Cozomo deā Medici recentlyĀ describedĀ Blast as āone of the biggest opportunities of 2024,ā āan āalmost free profit opportunity,ā and possibly āone of the most profitable moves Iāve made.ā
āNot only I will get Blast reward points ā but airdrops and things from the projects building on top of it.ā
Blast, he says, is going to be its own ecosystem āthat has everything.ā This includesĀ DeFi,Ā DEXes,Ā NFTs, memecoins, and more.
Over 3,000 teams are already building on the protocol. Blast users will be getting airdrops from many of these as well.
At the same time, says the collector, āEVERYTHING is incentivized to yield and to bring back value to bridgers.ā
Blast Airdrop Incoming ā Are You Eligible?
At the end of November, the teamĀ announcedĀ that the invite-only Blast Early Access is live. Participants will be rewarded with Blast Points based on how much they bridge and whom they invite.
The Developer Airdrop launched in January with the Blast Testnet.
The Blast Community Airdrop is split between Early Access Members (50%) and Developers (50%).
Those who bridge ETH to Blast start earning points immediately. These go towards the Blast airdrop, which many analysts and commenters expect to be massive.
MoonCat2878Ā arguedĀ the number could be around $1.5 billion, writing:
āHonestly I would be surprised if BLAST wouldnāt launch at around $15-20 billion as an entire new L2 with huge names behind it, a lot of liquidity and so many things building on top of it ready to go.ā
While the airdrop amount is unknown, MoonCat2878 opined that ā20% would be fair,ā and 10% would be the lowest: 5% for users and developers each.
At a $15 billion valuation, the collector said, it would equate to $1.5 billion in airdrop.
Notably, Blur distributed the 5thĀ largest airdrop in Ethereum history.
Developers Flocking to Blast
Developers seem to find Blast attractive. This indicates a future expansion of the Blast ecosystem.
The EVM-equivalent Blast said that yield enables new revenue streams and novel rewards for end-users.
āYield as a primitive unlocks new business models for Dapps,ā the websiteĀ says. āDapps can easily monetize deposits with a single config.ā
Also, Blast gives 100% of revenue from gas fees back to developers.
Meanwhile, 146,579 users have deposited nearly $2 billion to Blast in anticipation of the mainnet launch. āWhen the Blast mainnet launches, the bridge contract will unlock and release all those users and funds to your dapps,ā the websiteĀ toldĀ developers.
Moreover, on January 16, the testnet went live, and with it theĀ Big Bang CompetitionĀ for developersĀ buildingĀ dapps on Blast long-term.
The deadline was February 16, and the team willĀ announceĀ the winners today. There were so many applicants (over 60 hours of submission videos) that the team decided to increase the number of winners per category and allocate more rewards.
āThe LARGEST individual allocation of the Blast Airdrop to date will be distributed to winning teams,āĀ Ā accordingĀ to the team. The prizes are non-transferable.
All this said, while a project may sound attractive, understand that it comes with a set of risks and be sure to do your research.
#blast #btc #bnb #binance #eth