In March, the cryptocurrency market performed strongly, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high. Ethereum saw steady price increases, while the Cancun upgrade significantly reduced transaction costs. The Meme trend on the Solana blockchain ignited a wealth effect and had a ripple effect on other public chains like Base.
AI, Meme, and TON have been the main driving forces behind the mass adoption of blockchain. Public chains are also expanding the Web3 gaming ecosystem, which is crucial for blockchain mass adoption.
This report is sourced from Footprint Analytics’ Public Chain Research page, which provides an easy-to-use dashboard with key statistics and real-time updates on the public chain sector.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview
The cryptocurrency market performed strongly in March, mainly due to expectations of interest rate cuts despite strong overall economic performance. This prospect heightened inflation concerns and made assets like Bitcoin and gold more attractive.
The AI industry became a market focus when Nvidia announced the Blackwell GPU and GB200 superchip at the GTC 2024 AI Conference. 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 crypto AI sector.
In late 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 have come to an end, the crypto industry still faces severe regulatory challenges. It is worth mentioning that KuCoin is reportedly facing legal action from the US Department of Justice and other agencies, leading to a large-scale outflow of funds.
Public Chain Overview
As March came to a close, the total market capitalization of public chain cryptocurrencies reached $22 trillion, a 15.8% increase from 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 at $61,213, it quickly surpassed the previous high of $69,000 and reached a new all-time high of $73,068 on March 14th. Although it fell by 15.1% to $62,047 at one point in the middle of the month, it recovered by the end of the month and closed at $69,656.
The price movement of Bitcoin was closely related to the performance of the US Bitcoin spot ETF. The mid-month price decline 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 Bitcoin’s halving event in April maintained its upward momentum.
In contrast, Ethereum had relatively stable price increases, starting at $3,344 and closing at $3,648. Although Ethereum’s increase was slightly lower than Bitcoin’s, it continued to grow steadily, partially due to the uncertain prospects of the US spot ETF. The Cancun upgrade of Ethereum on March 13 aimed to reduce transaction costs and promote activities within its ecosystem.
The token prices of BNB and Solana both saw significant growth, with increases of 48.8% and 56.0% respectively, leading to an approximately 1% increase in their token market share.
In March, AI-related tokens experienced significant growth. The news of Sam Altman rejoining the board of OpenAI after being fired and rehired had a positive impact on AI-related tokens. The market’s anticipation of 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 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 easier to understand and accept. Conceptual AI tokens have received increasing attention, further driving the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Memes have also played an important role in driving mass adoption in the crypto world. Solana has recently gained attention due to the surge in Meme-related activities. Tokens such as $BOME and $SLERF quickly rose in price, attracting active participation from community members. This phenomenon fully demonstrates the potential of Memes in creating wealth quickly and has generated a widespread FOMO sentiment in the market. As an easily accessible and understandable entry point, Memes help lower the 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 100 new countries. This move is an important part of Telegram’s monetization strategy, allowing public channel owners to earn up to 50% of advertising revenue, all conducted through TON. This has greatly promoted on-chain activities in TON. In March, the price and market value of Toncoin doubled, reaching an all-time high. With Telegram’s large 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 be a key force driving blockchain mass adoption.
By the end of March, the Total Value Locked (TVL) in 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, doubling the figure from February. This growth was mainly driven by the Meme trend, which greatly increased the activity of online activities and attracted a large influx of capital. DeFi dApps on Solana, such as the DEX aggregator Jupiter, received high attention and user participation.
Layer 2
With the booming cryptocurrency market and the support of the Cancun upgrade, Ethereum’s Layer 2 on-chain activity and TVL reached new heights. Among them, Arbitrum One and Optimism performed particularly well, with TVL increasing by 26.4% and 7.2% respectively, collectively accounting for about 70% of the market share.
Base’s TVL saw an 87.3% growth, and the number of active users (wallets) increased by 29.6%, mainly due to the appeal 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, enabling touch ID or Google account integration, greatly enhancing Base’s user acquisition capabilities.
After the Cancun upgrade of Ethereum, the average transaction fees on its Layer 2 network significantly decreased. Arbitrum and Starknet saw transaction cost reductions of over 95%. This substantial reduction in fees marks the official entry of the Ethereum ecosystem into the “one cent era.”
Discussions about Layer 3 have become increasingly intense, with various opinions being expressed. Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, recently questioned the necessity of Layer 3 and explained why Polygon decided not to develop Layer 3. Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also expressed his views, pointing out that Layer 3 networks are not primarily for scalability but rather to provide “customizable features” for Layer 2 to enhance its performance.
Blockchain Gaming
In March, the rankings of active players in gaming platforms showed that 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 mentioning that Ronin and Polygon further solidified 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 from the previous month, while BNB Chain experienced a 13% decline. Despite having less than 10 games, Ronin’s market share expansion has been 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 are planned to be used for infrastructure enhancements. This proposal requires approval from the Arbitrum DAO.
Meanwhile, the Starknet Foundation is also taking active steps and has established a dedicated gaming 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 for March 2024 from Footprint Analytics.
Public Chain Financing Situation
In March, the public chain sector experienced significant growth, with 23 financing events totaling $380 million, a 160.2% increase from 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, funds were distributed across three main categories: 8 events focused on Layer 1, 7 events focused on Bitcoin Layer 2, and another 8 events mainly focused on Ethereum Layer 2. Although the highest disclosed investment amount for Bitcoin Layer 2 was only $10 million, the Bitcoin ecosystem has attracted more attention.
Token sales are gradually becoming a popular way to raise funds and investments. Recently, Berachain successfully completed its fundraising through a token sale, reaching a valuation of $1.5 billion and becoming a unicorn. This 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, selling approximately 19.5 million OP tokens. These tokens were sourced from the undistributed OP token treasury and had a total value of nearly $89 million based on the current market value. These tokens were purchased by an undisclosed buyer and will be subject to a two-year lock-up period.
Key Developments
With the Meme coin trend, the search volume for Solana on Google reached its peak at 100.
The Blast mainnet officially launched on March 1st.
The 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 scalable blockchain with its technology prototype “Pilotfish” on Sui.
Google now supports searching for Bitcoin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon, and Fantom blockchain wallet addresses.
BNB Chain launched the “Rollup as a Service” (RaaS) solution.
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This article is for industry research and communication purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. The market involves risks, and investments should be made with caution.
Footprint Analytics is a blockchain data solutions provider. With cutting-edge AI technology, we offer the first no-code data analytics platform and a unified data API for the crypto industry, allowing users to quickly access NFT, Game, and wallet address fund flow data from over 30 public chain ecosystems.
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Tags:
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Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute investment advice.
Original article link: https://www.bitpush.news/articles/6591214
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