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Author: stella@footprint.network, data source: Footprint Analytics Public Chain Research Page
In March, the crypto market performed strongly and Bitcoin hit a new record high.Ethereum prices have steadily climbed, while Cancun upgrades have significantly reduced transaction costs.The Meme craze on Solana chain swept over, and the powerful wealth-making effect ignited market enthusiasm, and its influence also affected other public chains, such as Base.
AI, Meme and TON are the major forces in the near future when it comes to promoting large-scale blockchain adoption.At the same time, public chains are spared no effort to expand the Web3 gaming ecosystem, which is increasingly receiving attention from the market as a key driving force for the large-scale adoption of blockchain.
The data in 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 metrics in the public chain field and is updated in real time.
Crypto Market Overview
The cryptocurrency market performed strongly in March, mainly due to market expectations of falling interest rates, despite strong overall economic performance.This prospect exacerbates inflation concerns and makes assets like Bitcoin and gold more attractive.
The AI industry has become the focus of the market, and Nvidia’s release of Blackwell GPU and GB200 super chips at the AI event GTC 2024 has not only ignited the enthusiasm of the US and global stock markets, but also attracted widespread attention in the cryptocurrency market, driving the rise of the crypto AI sector.
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for fraudulent acts of the FTX exchange and Alameda Research in November 2022.While the story of SBF and FTX may come to an end, the crypto space still faces severe regulatory challenges.It is worth mentioning that news came out at the end of the month that KuCoin is facing legal actions from the US Department of Justice and other departments.With that, KuCoin faces a large-scale outflow of funds.
Public chain overview
As March ended, the total market value of public chain cryptocurrencies climbed to $2.2 trillion, an increase of 15.8% from February.Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana performed particularly well in this wave of growth, with market shares of 63.2%, 19.7%, 4.2% and 4.1% respectively.
Data source: Market value proportion of public chain tokens – Footprint Analytics
Bitcoin has experienced significant ups and downs between “breakthrough” and “volatility”.The month began at $61,213, quickly breaking through the previous $69,000 high and hitting an all-time high of $73,068 on March 14.Despite a 15.1% drop to $62,047 mid-month, it recovered lost ground at the end of the month and ended up at $69,656.
Bitcoin price movements are closely related to the performance of US Bitcoin spot ETFs.The mid-month price decline was mainly affected by slowing inflows of Bitcoin spot ETFs and traditional traders lowering leverage.However, market expectations for the Bitcoin halving event in April maintained its upward momentum.
Source: Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices – Footprint Analytics
By contrast, Ethereum’s gains were relatively steady, starting at $3,344 and closing at $3,648.Although Ethereum has gained slightly less than Bitcoin, it has continued to grow steadily, in part because the prospects for U.S. spot ETFs are not clear.The March 13 Ethereum Cancun upgrade aims to reduce transaction costs on Ethereum, thereby facilitating activity within its ecosystem.
Both BNB and Solana experienced significant growth in token prices, with 48.8% and 56.0% respectively, driving their token market cap share to increase by about 1% in the month.
Source of data: Price and market value of public chain tokens – Footprint Analytics
In March, AI-related tokens achieved significant growth.Sam Altman re-entered the OpenAI board of directors after experiencing a firing and rehiring incident, and the news has had a positive impact on AI-related tokens.In addition, market expectations for the Nvidia GTC conference have further boosted the hype atmosphere, bringing positive benefits to the announcement of participation in the conference.It is worth noting that the token price and market value of NEAR chain both soared by 84%.
The widespread popularity of AI applications not only deepens the public’s understanding of AI, but also makes the concept of “AI + encryption” more deeply rooted in people’s hearts and is easy to understand and accept.AI concept tokens are gaining increasing attention, further driving the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Meme also plays an important role in promoting large-scale adoption in the crypto world.Solana has attracted much attention recently due to the surge in Meme-related activities, with token prices such as $BOME and $SLERF rising rapidly, attracting active participation from a large number of community members.This phenomenon fully demonstrates Meme’s potential in quickly creating wealth and triggers a widespread FOMO sentiment in the market.As an easy-to-reach and understand portal, Meme helps lower the threshold and attracts more people to explore the Web3 realm.
Memes
TON (The Open Network) and the social application that is closely linked to it, Telegram has had a significant impact in promoting large-scale adoption.Especially in March, Telegram announced that its advertising platform expanded to nearly a hundred new countries.This move, as an important part of Telegram’s monetization strategy, allows public channel owners to earn up to 50% of advertising revenue, with all transactions conducted through TON.This move greatly facilitated TON’s on-chain activity.In March, Toncoin’s price and market capitalization doubled to its all-time high.With Telegram’s huge user base and seamless integration of dApps, TON simplifies access to Web3.Combined with Telegram’s strong marketing capabilities, the TON ecosystem is expected to become a key force in driving massive blockchain adoption.
TON Blockchain
At the end of March, the public chain TVL reached US$8.13 billion, with Ethereum, Tron and BNB chains ranked in the top three.
Data source: Public Chain TVL Ranking – Footprint Analytics
Solana’s TVL achieved significant growth, reaching $3.59 billion, a figure that doubled the number in February.This growth is driven primarily by the meme craze, which greatly boosted the activity of online activities and attracted a large amount of capital inflows.DeFi dApps on Solana, such as DEX aggregator Jupiter, have received extremely high attention and user engagement.
Layer 2
With the crypto market booming and Cancun’s upgrade, Ethereum Layer 2’s on-chain activity and TVL have both reached new heights.Among them, Arbitrum One and Optimism performed particularly well, with TVL growing by 26.4% and 7.2% respectively, accounting for about 70% of the market share.
Base’s TVL achieved an 87.3% increase, while active users (wallets) also increased by 29.6%, mainly due to the attractiveness of Meme coins like $DEGEN.In addition, Coinbase’s smart wallets have further boosted the activity of its ecosystem.This smart wallet uses Account Abstraction (AA) technology to simplify user registration process through touch ID or Google account integration, greatly improving Base’s user acquisition capabilities.
Data source: Ethereum Layer 2 Overview – Footprint Analytics
After Ethereum completed its Cancun upgrade, the average transaction fee on its Layer 2 network has dropped significantly.Among them, Arbitrum and Starknet on-chain transaction costs have been cut by more than 95%.This dramatic reduction in fees marks the official entry of the Ethereum ecosystem into the “one-cent era”.
Source: Arbitrum Average daily transaction number and average daily single transaction fee – Footprint Analytics
Discussions about Layer 3 are becoming increasingly fierce, and people from all walks of life have expressed their opinions.Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, recently questioned the need for Layer 3 and explained why Polygon decided not to develop Layer 3.Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also expressed his opinion, pointing out that the Layer 3 network is not primarily used for scaling; instead, their main purpose is to provide Layer 2 with “customized features” to enhance itsperformance.
Blockchain Games
In March, the gamer rankings showed that Ronin, Polygon and BNB chains were the platforms with the largest number of active players, accounting for 35.4%, 20.9% and 10.8% of the market share, respectively.It is worth mentioning that Ronin and Polygon further consolidated their leadership, with market share increasing by 6.3% and 7.8% respectively compared to February.
Data source: The proportion of active gamers in public chains – Footprint Analytics
In terms of trading volume ranking, Ethereum, Ronin and BNB chains dominate.Ronin’s trading volume reached $81.7 million in March, up 35.1% month-on-month, while BNB Chain saw a 13% decline.Ronin has strong market share expansion momentum with less than 10 games.As Ronin continues to add new games, its growth potential is expected to further improve.
Competition in the public chain field is becoming increasingly fierce, and major public chains are increasing their investments and are committed to promoting the prosperity of the Web3 game ecosystem.
The Arbitrum Foundation has announced a proposal to distribute $200 million ARB tokens over two years to support gaming projects on its blockchain.Of these, $160 million will be allocated to game publishers and developers, while the remaining funds are planned to be used to improve infrastructure.This proposal requires approval from Arbitrum DAO.
At the same time, the Starknet Foundation is also actively taking action to establish a dedicated gaming committee to promote the development of the Starknet gaming ecosystem.The committee plans to distribute $50 million tokens to support the board-approved game projects, especially those that inspire game development and player participation.
You can read the blockchain game monthly report from Footprint Analytics to learn more about the gaming industry trends: “March 2024 Web3 Game Report: Market Trends and Investment Trends”.
Public chain investment and financing situation
In March, the public chain sector ushered in a significant growth momentum, with a total investment of 23 financing events, with a total investment of up to US$380 million, an increase of 160.2% from February.Optimism, Berachain and Eclipse performed particularly well in this investment boom, receiving huge financial support of $89 million, $69 million and $50 million, respectively.
Public chain financing event in March 2024 (Data source: crypto-fundraising.info)
Among these 23 financing events, the capital distribution showed a “three-legged” trend: 8 of them involved Layer 1, 7 focused on Bitcoin Layer 2, while the other 8 focused on Ethereum Layer 2.Although the maximum disclosed investment amount of Bitcoin Layer 2 is only $10 million, the Bitcoin ecosystem has gained increasing attention.
Token sales are gradually becoming a popular way to obtain investment and financing.
Recently, Berachain, which successfully completed financing through token sales, has a valuation of $1.5 billion, successfully joining the ranks of unicorns.The Cosmos-based and EVM-compatible platform focuses on DeFi transactions and plans to launch its mainnet in the second quarter of 2024.
The Optimism Foundation also announced a private token sale campaign, selling approximately 19.5 million OP tokens.The sale comes from an unallocated OP token library, which is worth nearly $89 million in current market value.The tokens were purchased by an unidentified buyer and will be subject to a two-year lock-up period.
Key News
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With the Meme coin boom, Solana’s search volume on Google surged to a maximum of 100.
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The Blast mainnet was officially launched on March 1.
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Bitcoin Layer 2 project BEVM announced plans to release its mainnet.
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CyberConnect announces the launch of Ethereum Layer 2 network Cyber.
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Mysten Labs uses the technology prototype “Pilotfish” on Sui to prove the feasibility of linear scaling of blockchains.
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Google has supported searching for on-chain wallet addresses for Bitcoin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon and Fantom.
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BNB Chain launches the “Rollup as a Service” (RaaS) solution.
