In March, the cryptocurrency market performed strongly, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high. Ethereum saw steady price growth, while the Cancun upgrade significantly reduced transaction costs. The Meme craze on the Solana blockchain ignited market enthusiasm and had a ripple effect on other public chains like Base.
AI, Meme, and TON have been the main driving forces behind the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. Public chains are also expanding the Web3 gaming ecosystem, which is crucial for mass adoption.
This report is sourced from Footprint Analytics’ Public Chain Research page. The page provides an easy-to-use dashboard that includes key statistics and metrics for the public chain sector, with real-time updates.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview
In March, the cryptocurrency market performed strongly, mainly driven by expectations of interest rate cuts, despite strong overall economic performance. This outlook intensified inflation concerns, making assets like Bitcoin and gold more attractive.
The AI industry became a market focus when Nvidia announced the Blackwell GPU and GB200 super chip at the GTC 2024 AI event. This not only ignited enthusiasm in the US and global stock markets but also attracted widespread attention in the cryptocurrency market, driving the rise of the cryptocurrency AI sector.
At the end of March, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was sentenced to 25 years of federal imprisonment for fraudulent activities related to the collapse of FTX exchange and Alameda Research in November 2022. Although the SBF and FTX story may come to an end, the crypto field still faces severe regulatory challenges. It is worth mentioning that there were reports at the end of the month that KuCoin is facing legal action from the US Department of Justice and other departments. As a result, KuCoin is facing a large-scale outflow of funds.
Public Chain Overview
With the end of March, the total market value of public chain cryptocurrencies reached $22 trillion, a 15.8% increase compared to February. Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana stood out in this growth, with market shares of 63.2%, 19.7%, 4.2%, and 4.1% respectively.
Bitcoin experienced significant fluctuations between “breakthroughs” and “volatility”. Starting the month at $61,213, it quickly surpassed the previous high of $69,000 and reached a new all-time high of $73,068 on March 14. Although it temporarily dropped 15.1% to $62,047 in the middle of the month, it recovered by the end of the month and closed at $69,656.
The price movement of Bitcoin is closely related to the performance of the Bitcoin spot ETF in the US. The mid-month price drop was mainly due to the slowdown in funds flowing into the Bitcoin spot ETF and traditional traders reducing leverage. However, the market’s expectations for the Bitcoin halving event in April maintained its upward momentum.
In contrast, Ether’s price increase was relatively steady, starting at $3,344 and closing at $3,648. Although Ether’s increase was slightly lower than Bitcoin’s, it still maintained steady growth, partly due to the uncertain prospects of the approval of the US spot ETF for Ether. The Cancun upgrade of Ethereum on March 13 aimed to reduce transaction costs and promote activity within its ecosystem.
BNB and Solana’s token prices both saw significant growth, with increases of 48.8% and 56.0% respectively, leading to about a 1% increase in their token market share.
In March, AI-related tokens experienced significant growth. Sam Altman rejoining the OpenAI board after being fired and rehired had a positive impact on AI-related tokens. Additionally, market expectations for the Nvidia GTC conference further fueled speculation and brought positive news to projects participating in the conference. It is worth noting that the token price and market value of NEAR Chain both soared by 84%.
The widespread adoption of AI has not only deepened public understanding of AI but also made the concept of “AI + crypto” more popular and easily understood and accepted. AI concept tokens have attracted increasing attention, further promoting the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Memes have also played an important role in driving mass adoption in the crypto world. Recently, Solana gained attention due to the surge in Meme-related activities. Tokens like $BOME and $SLERF quickly rose in price, attracting active participation from a large number of community members. This phenomenon fully demonstrates the potential of Memes in creating wealth quickly and has caused widespread FOMO sentiment in the market. Memes, as an easy-to-access and understand entry point, help lower barriers and attract more people to explore the Web3 space.
TON (The Open Network) and its closely associated social application Telegram have had a significant impact on driving mass adoption. Especially in March, Telegram announced the expansion of its advertising platform to nearly a hundred new countries. As an important part of Telegram’s monetization strategy, this move allows public channel owners to earn up to 50% of advertising revenue, and all transactions are conducted through TON. This greatly promotes on-chain activities for TON. In March, the price and market value of Toncoin doubled, reaching an all-time high. With the help of Telegram’s large user base and seamless integration of dApps, TON simplifies access to Web3. Combined with Telegram’s powerful marketing capabilities, the TON ecosystem is expected to become a key force driving mass adoption of blockchain.
By the end of March, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on public chains reached $8.13 billion, with Ethereum, Tron, and BNB Chain ranking in the top three.
Solana’s TVL saw significant growth, reaching $3.59 billion, which is double the February figure. This growth was mainly driven by the Meme craze, which greatly increased online activity and attracted a large amount of capital inflow. DeFi dApps on Solana, such as the DEX aggregator Jupiter, received high attention and user participation.
With the booming cryptocurrency market and the help of the Cancun upgrade, Ethereum Layer 2 saw new highs in on-chain activity and TVL. Arbitrum One and Optimism performed particularly well, with TVL increasing by 26.4% and 7.2% respectively, accounting for about 70% of the market share.
Base’s TVL increased by 87.3%, and active users (wallets) increased by 29.6%, mainly due to the attractiveness of Meme coins like $DEGEN. In addition, the launch of Coinbase’s smart wallet further boosted the ecosystem’s activity. This smart wallet simplifies the user registration process through Account Abstraction (AA) technology, integrating Touch ID or Google account, greatly enhancing Base’s user acquisition capabilities.
After the Ethereum Cancun upgrade, the average transaction fees on Ethereum Layer 2 networks significantly decreased. Arbitrum and Starknet saw transaction cost reductions of over 95%. This significant reduction in fees marks the official entry of the Ethereum ecosystem into the “one-penny era”.
Discussions about Layer 3 are becoming more intense, with various parties expressing their views. Marc Boiron, the CEO of Polygon Labs, recently questioned the necessity of Layer 3 and explained why Polygon decided not to develop Layer 3. Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, also expressed his views, pointing out that Layer 3 networks are not primarily used for scalability; instead, their main purpose is to provide “customized functionality” for Layer 2 to improve its performance.
In March, Ronin, Polygon, and BNB Chain had the highest number of active players, accounting for 35.4%, 20.9%, and 10.8% of the market share respectively. It is worth noting that Ronin and Polygon further consolidated their leading positions, with their market shares increasing by 6.3% and 7.8% respectively compared to February.
In terms of trading volume rankings, Ethereum, Ronin, and BNB Chain dominated. In March, Ronin’s trading volume reached $81.7 million, a 35.1% increase compared to the previous month, while BNB Chain experienced a 13% decline. Despite having fewer than 10 games, Ronin’s market share expansion is strong. With the continuous addition of new games, its growth potential is expected to further increase.
Competition in the public chain sector is becoming increasingly fierce, with major public chains increasing their investments to promote the prosperity of the Web3 gaming ecosystem. The Arbitrum Foundation announced a proposal to distribute 200 million $ARB tokens over two years to support gaming projects on its blockchain. Of these, 160 million $ARB will be allocated to game publishers and developers, while the remaining funds will be used to enhance infrastructure. This proposal requires approval from the Arbitrum DAO.
Meanwhile, the Starknet Foundation is also taking proactive measures by establishing a dedicated game committee to promote the development of the Starknet gaming ecosystem. The committee plans to distribute 50 million $STRK tokens to support committee-approved gaming projects, especially those that incentivize game development and player participation.
You can read more about the gaming industry in the Web3 Gaming Report from Footprint Analytics: “2024 March Web3 Gaming Report: Market Trends and Investment Dynamics”.
Public Chain Financing Situation
In March, the public chain sector experienced significant growth, with 23 financing events totaling $380 million in investments, a 160.2% increase compared to February. Optimism, Berachain, and Eclipse stood out in this wave of investment, receiving massive funding of $89 million, $69 million, and $50 million respectively.
Among these 23 financing events, the funds were distributed in a “three-legged” pattern: 8 events involved Layer 1, 7 focused on Bitcoin Layer 2, and the remaining 8 mainly focused on Ethereum Layer 2. Although the highest disclosed investment amount for Bitcoin Layer 2 was 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 successfully completed financing through a token sale, and its valuation has reached $1.5 billion, making it a unicorn. This platform, based on Cosmos and compatible with EVM, focuses on DeFi trading and plans to launch its mainnet in the second quarter of 2024.
The Optimism Foundation also announced a private token sale, selling approximately 19.5 million OP tokens. These tokens were sourced from the undistributed OP token treasury and, based on the current market value, amounted to nearly $89 million. The tokens were purchased by an undisclosed buyer and will be subject to a two-year lock-up period.
Key Developments
With the Meme coin craze, Solana’s search volume on Google surged to a peak of 100.
Blast mainnet officially launched on March 1.
Bitcoin Layer 2 project BEVM announced its mainnet release plan.
CyberConnect announced the launch of the Ethereum Layer 2 network Cyber.
Mysten Labs demonstrated the feasibility of linearly scaling blockchain using the “Pilotfish” technology on Sui.
Google now supports searching for Bitcoin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon, and Fantom wallet addresses.
BNB Chain launched the “Rollup as a Service” (RaaS) solution.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is for industry research and communication purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. The market is risky, and investment should be cautious.
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Tags:
Ethereum
Cryptocurrency
Blockchain
Bitcoin
Original article link: [Link to the original article](https://www.bitpush.news/articles/6591214)
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