After reading the latest report from a16z, I summarized and sorted out my own thoughts. I hope it will help you understand the overall situation of the industry.

At the same time, I would like to hear your opinions.

1. Cryptocurrency usage is booming

Now more and more people are using cryptocurrencies, and the number of active crypto addresses has exceeded 220 million! This means that there are hundreds of millions of wallet addresses interacting with the blockchain. The fastest growing network is Solana, which contributes almost half of the active addresses, followed by NEAR, Base, Tron and Bitcoin. In fact, it is surprising that near can rank second. I have always thought that near is a small transparent because its wallet is not easy to use, so I have never participated in the near ecosystem.

Base is a second-layer network launched by Coinbase. It has 22 million active addresses in a short period of time, while the old Ethereum still maintains an active address of 6 million. In terms of the interest of technical developers, the popularity of Solana and Base has also risen sharply. Ethereum is still the first choice of developers, but Solana's share has increased from 5.1% last year to 11.2%.

2. Cryptocurrency becomes a political issue in the US election

You may not think that cryptocurrency has become a hot topic in the US election! In swing states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, searches for cryptocurrency have increased significantly. This shows that more and more people are concerned about cryptocurrency policies and even influence voters' choices.

In addition, exchange-traded products (ETFs) related to Bitcoin and Ethereum have been approved for listing in the United States, which gives more investors the opportunity to access crypto assets. The approval of ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also a milestone in cryptocurrency policy. Regardless of which party wins the election, cryptocurrency-related legislation may be accelerated.

3. Stablecoins have found their market niche

Stablecoins, especially those pegged to the U.S. dollar, have become the "killer app" in the cryptocurrency space because they make international payments fast and cheap. For example, the average fee for sending USDC on Ethereum has dropped to $1, and on Base it's less than 1 cent. Traditional international wire transfers cost an average of $44! (Money laundering tool)

The total volume of stablecoin transactions has reached $8.5 trillion, almost twice the amount processed by Visa, which shows that stablecoins are not just a part of the cryptocurrency world, but have become an important force in global payments.

4. A leap forward in blockchain infrastructure

Blockchain technology has improved significantly over the past few years, increasing capacity and processing transactions much faster. Ethereum's second-layer network can now process 50 times more transactions per second than it did four years ago! Moreover, transaction fees are also decreasing. For example, the "Dencun" upgrade launched by Ethereum this year has greatly reduced the fees of the second-layer network.

Another important technological breakthrough is zero-knowledge proof (ZK). This technology not only improves privacy and scalability, but also makes blockchain computing more efficient. Now many developers are using these new technologies to create more cheap and fast blockchain applications.

5. DeFi is still hot

The decentralized finance (DeFi) space remains very hot, with more than $169 billion locked in funds. DeFi’s daily active addresses account for 34% of cryptocurrency usage, the most. DeFi not only makes it easier for people to trade and borrow cryptocurrencies, but also enhances the security of the entire Ethereum network. (Re-staking scam)

After Ethereum switched to a proof-of-stake mechanism in 2020, its energy consumption has been reduced a lot, and the staked Ether has accounted for 29%, a significant increase compared to 11% two years ago.

6. Combination of Cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a very hot topic this year, and the application of cryptocurrency in this field has also begun to increase. Many crypto projects are using AI technology, such as using AI to verify the authenticity of data and help create smart contracts.

The training cost of AI technology is very high, and usually only large companies can afford it. However, the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency can help reduce this trend of centralization, allowing more people to have the opportunity to access and use AI technology.

7. More new applications are unlocked

As blockchain transaction costs drop and capacity increases, more and more on-chain applications become feasible. Digital assets such as NFTs are now becoming a trend to mint low-cost NFTs through some emerging social platforms. Blockchain games and social networks are also developing rapidly. For example, on-chain games such as Pirate Nation have become one of the applications that consume the most gas on Ethereum.

At the same time, the crypto prediction market is also experiencing a new round of growth, especially before the US election, when many people used these platforms to predict the election results, even though these markets are not yet legal in the United States.

Overall, the entire industry is still developing rapidly and becoming more and more formal.