Author: Stella L (stella@footprint.network)
Data source: Footprint Analytics Public Chain Research Dashboard
2024 marks a significant watershed for the public chain industry, with the focus shifting from technical competition to practical application. In this year, the market capitalization of public chains grew by 105.3% to reach $2.8 trillion, Bitcoin's price surpassed $100,000, and institutional-level adoption was achieved through ETFs. The Ethereum Layer 2 network expanded to over 200 chains, and Bitcoin Layer 2 TVL increased by 1,277.6%, all showcasing the industry's transition from technical experiments to practical real-world applications. The public chain industry is experiencing a gradual shift from technology-driven development to application-driven development.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all data in this report is as of December 20, 2024.
Market Dynamics: Growth and Transformation
In 2024, the public chain industry achieved unprecedented growth, with multiple key indicators showing significant expansion.
The total market capitalization of public chains grew by 105.3% to reach $2.8 trillion. Bitcoin's dominance rose to 69.8%, while Ethereum's share dropped from 20.4% to 15.2%. The shares of BNB Chain and Solana remained stable at 3.5% and 3.3%, respectively, with other platforms accounting for 8.1%.
The DeFi sector also showed strong growth momentum in 2024, with total locked value (TVL) reaching $102.8 billion by year-end, an increase of 88.6% year-on-year. Among the top 10 public chains by TVL, Bitcoin and TON showed the most significant growth, both exceeding 2,000%. Aptos, Sui, and Solana also performed well, growing by 754.4%, 677.1%, and 321.3%, respectively. However, Tron and Avalanche saw declines in their TVL.
The Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem experienced significant centralization trends in 2024. Arbitrum maintained its leading position with $10.6 billion TVL and a market share of 41.1%, down from 50.8% in 2023. Base emerged as a dark horse of the year, jumping to second place with $5.8 billion TVL (22.5% share), while Optimism ranked third with $4 billion TVL (15.8%). These three platforms collectively accounted for 79.1% of Ethereum L2 DeFi TVL, while previous competitors like Blast, zkSync, and Starknet saw declines in market share.
Meanwhile, the ecosystem continues to expand, with 50 Rollups and 70 Validium & Optimium currently running on the mainnet, along with approximately 90 upcoming chains, bringing the total number of Ethereum L2 chains to over 200.
The Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechain ecosystem experienced explosive growth, with total locked value reaching $2.6 billion, a significant increase of 1,277.6% compared to 2023. Core leads with $790 million TVL (30.3% market share), followed by Bitlayer ($500 million, 19.4% share) and BSquared ($330 million, 12.7% share). This growth is reflected not only in TVL but also in the number of active chains, which more than doubled over the year, with nearly 20 existing chains.
Competitive Landscape: Leaders and Challengers
In 2024, the competitive landscape of the public chain ecosystem underwent significant changes, primarily characterized by enhanced Bitcoin dominance, Solana's recovery, and the emergence of new challengers.
Bitcoin: From Value Storage to Financial Infrastructure
Bitcoin achieved outstanding growth in 2024, with prices rising by 129.2% and market capitalization increasing by 131.7%. This growth was driven by institutional adoption of spot ETFs, the April halving event, and positive sentiment following the U.S. elections. In addition to breaking the $100,000 price milestone, the Bitcoin ecosystem saw two key developments:
Institutional Adoption: The successful launch of spot ETFs in January has completely transformed the landscape for institutional access, with BlackRock's product size rapidly reaching $20 billion. Bitcoin surpassed silver and Saudi Aramco to become the seventh-largest asset globally, marking a shift from speculative asset to recognized value storage.
BTCfi Rises: The Bitcoin ecosystem has achieved expansion beyond price growth through innovative financial products. Babylon's Bitcoin staking project, Solv Protocol's cross-chain solutions, and Core's Fusion upgrade all demonstrate a maturing ecosystem. Cross-chain functionality has progressed through integrations with the BOB network and Optimism, as well as the BEVM's 'Super Bitcoin' framework, although standardization still faces challenges.
Ethereum: Layer 2 Drives Ecosystem Evolution
2024 is a key year for Ethereum's transformation into a Layer 2-centric ecosystem. Despite price rising by 55.8% to $3,744, Ethereum faces complex challenges in repositioning its role and maintaining relevance against the backdrop of Layer 2 adoption growth. The successful launch of spot ETFs in July received a degree of institutional recognition, but Ethereum's price performance lagged significantly behind Bitcoin.
The Ethereum mainnet achieved significant transformation through the 'Cancun upgrade,' successfully reducing Layer 2 transaction costs and enhancing scalability. However, the migration of activity to Layer 2 led to a decline in Ethereum's own fee revenue, raising discussions about Ethereum's long-term sustainability. The Ethereum Foundation responded with several measures, including implementing Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), developing cross-L2 communication standards, and strengthening security requirements for Layer 2 solutions.
The Layer 2 ecosystem demonstrated significant growth and integration throughout the year. Noteworthy new entrants enriched the ecosystem, including World Chain, Uniswap's Unichain, and Sony's Soneium. This evolution highlights Ethereum's transition from a pure execution layer to a diversified Layer 2 ecosystem of settlement and security providers. Although questions remain regarding revenue models and competitive dynamics, Ethereum's ongoing development in developer activity and scalable solution innovation showcases its adaptability.
Solana: The Third Giant
2024 witnessed Solana's strong comeback, with prices rising by 70.8% and market capitalization increasing by 90.9%, as the coin price broke $260 in November, setting a new historical high. This resurgence began with the January Jupiter airdrop, leading to unprecedented activity in the Solana ecosystem. Solana established itself as a retail trading hub, fostering a vibrant meme and DeFi community. In addition to meme culture, Solana made strides in multiple areas: re-staking protocols, modular Layer 2 solutions, and stablecoin innovations. The ecosystem further extended its influence through the expansion of SVM chains such as Eclipse, Soon, Atlas, and Sonic.
The Rise of Emerging Forces: TON, Sui, and Base
TON: Social Integration Drives Platform Growth
The Open Network (TON) exhibited significant growth in 2024, with Toncoin prices rising by 149.6% and market capitalization increasing by 84.3%. TON's success primarily stems from its deep integration with Telegram, effectively bridging traditional social networks and blockchain technology. The platform simplifies the crypto experience for millions of users through Telegram wallet functionalities and blockchain integration, providing easy access to games, memes, and DeFi applications, establishing a model for large-scale adoption.
Sui: From Move Language Pioneer to Ecosystem Leader
Sui performed exceptionally well, with token prices soaring by 461.6% and market capitalization growing by 1,363.8%. This success reflects market confidence in Move language technology and ecosystem development. Sui focuses on DeFi and gaming sectors, including Telegram game integration and the innovative SuiPlay0X1 game console development, showcasing its comprehensive layout for ecosystem growth. The platform's emphasis on user experience and protocol development has created positive network effects, attracting joint participation from developers and users.
Base: Institutional Background Drives Rapid Growth
The significant growth of Base is driven by several key factors. Coinbase dramatically reduced the entry barrier for mainstream users through its user-friendly smart wallet. The platform gained substantial momentum from successful social applications like friend.tech and Clanker, while the popularity of memecoins further boosted activity on the Base chain. The implementation of the 'Cancun upgrade' significantly lowered transaction fees, continuously enhancing Base's appeal to developers and users.
Key Trends in the Public Chain Industry for 2024
New Chains Emerging
In 2024, project teams launched their own public chains. DeFi giant Uniswap announced Unichain; gaming platform Treasure DAO developed a ZK-based Layer 2; the NFT sector saw Pudgy Penguins launch Abstract; and the Web3 platform Galxe introduced Gravity. Furthermore, innovative new chains such as Monad, Berachain, and HyperLiquid reflect the public chain industry's shift towards specialized blockchain infrastructure.
Institutional Adoption: From Exploration to Strategic Integration
Changing Modes of Institutional Participation
2024 marks a decisive shift in institutional adoption from experimental blockchain initiatives to strategic implementation. Financial institutions are leading this transformation, with BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF rapidly reaching $20 billion, and PayPal expanding PYUSD to Solana. Tech giants are demonstrating deeper involvement through innovative means: Sony launched the Soneium chain for entertainment applications, while Google Cloud expanded its Web3 portal services. Infrastructure development is particularly noteworthy, with Circle launching native USDC on Sui and Visa integrating Solana for settlements.
Institutional Investment Paradigm Shift
The public chain sector demonstrated robust recovery in 2024, with 174 financing events raising a total of $1.7 billion, an increase of 137.1% compared to last year. Notably, institutional investment strategies shifted from pure infrastructure to application-oriented innovation. Early investment events accounted for 21.4% of total financing events, while Series A and B rounds accounted for 31.8%, reflecting an increasingly mature ecosystem.
The investment philosophy of venture capital has significantly evolved, prioritizing user-facing applications over traditional infrastructure development. This is evident in the large investments in consumer-facing projects: Monad raised $225 million to optimize user experience, while Celestia and Berachain each secured $100 million for application-oriented infrastructure.
From Technical Competition to Application Innovation
The public chain industry underwent a fundamental shift in 2024, moving from technology-led to application-driven strategies. This transformation challenged the previously dominant industry mindset of 'build first, users will naturally come.' Despite significant improvements in technological capabilities, the increased network capacity did not directly translate into corresponding user growth. For instance, despite hardware limitations, the Ethereum base layer has a higher 'users per second' (UOPS) than most Layer 2s, highlighting the complex relationship between technological capabilities and actual adoption.
This reality has prompted the ecosystem to make strategic shifts. Blockchain platforms are increasingly focused on identifying specific user needs and building targeted solutions rather than pursuing pure technological advancements. This 'find users first, then build' approach is reflected in several successful initiatives. Social finance integration has proven to be particularly effective, as demonstrated by TON's Telegram integration and Base's friend.tech, showcasing how familiar social platforms can drive blockchain adoption. By simplifying user experience through account abstraction and familiar authentication methods, the entry barrier for mainstream users has been significantly lowered.
The evolution of meme culture in the blockchain space further exemplifies this shift towards application-oriented development. Initially purely speculative activities have evolved into effective channels for user acquisition, particularly on platforms like Solana and Base. These networks successfully leveraged meme-related initiatives to drive ecosystem growth while establishing sustainable community participation. The success of these user-centric approaches indicates that sustainable growth in the blockchain space increasingly relies on understanding and serving user needs rather than solely advancing technological capabilities.
2025 Outlook
As the blockchain industry transitions from technical experimentation to actual implementation, 2025 is expected to be a significant year of transformation.
Regulatory Clarity
The regulatory environment shows significant signs of improvement, especially in the United States. A clearer regulatory framework is expected to benefit the entire industry, particularly the progress in stablecoin legislation. This regulatory clarity will promote increased blockchain adoption by institutions through regulated products and services while fostering competition among jurisdictions in crypto regulation.
Public Chain Specialization
Public chain specialization has become the dominant trend, shifting from general Layer 1 competition to purpose-built architectures. Supported by cross-chain infrastructure, application-specific chains and optimized execution environments will experience significant growth. The 'Rollup as a Service' (RaaS) sector is expected to expand, providing easier custom blockchain solutions for enterprises and project teams.
Technological Innovation and AI Integration
In 2025, technological innovation will shift from pure breakthroughs to application-oriented infrastructure upgrades. The implementation of Proto-Danksharding will double blob capacity, pushing Layer 2 scalability into a new phase; the development of chain abstraction technology will bring a more intuitive user experience; and the standardization of cross-chain communication will simplify interoperability.
On the infrastructure front, we expect to see more developments driven by practical demand. The modular blockchain technology stack will mature, providing specialized solutions for data availability, settlement, and execution layers. Notably, the deep integration of AI technology with blockchain will reshape infrastructure forms: from improving user interfaces to implementing complex on-chain AI agents, and from decentralized model training to supporting social finance integration, these innovations will support more complex application scenarios while maintaining security and decentralization, laying a solid foundation for the next round of blockchain innovation.
Conclusion
The past year has proven that sustainable growth relies not only on technological capabilities but also on meaningful user adoption and practical utility. With increased regulatory clarity, advancements in technological infrastructure, and heightened institutional participation, the groundwork for meaningful large-scale adoption of blockchain technology has been laid. The focus has shifted from 'what's technically possible' to 'what's practically valuable,' a transition that will define the next phase of industry growth in 2025.
