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 Solana Meme frenzy ignited the market and had a ripple effect on other public chains like Base.
In terms of driving mass adoption of blockchain, AI, Meme, and TON have been the main forces. Public chains are also tirelessly expanding the Web3 gaming ecosystem, which is crucial for blockchain adoption and gaining market attention.
This report’s data 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 market expectations of interest rate cuts despite a strong overall economy. This 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 significant regulatory challenges. It is worth mentioning that KuCoin is facing legal actions from entities like the US Department of Justice at the end of the month, resulting in a massive outflow of funds from KuCoin.
Public Chain Overview
With the end of March, the total market value of public chain cryptocurrencies reached $2.2 trillion, a growth of 15.8% compared to February. Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana stood out in this growth, accounting for 63.2%, 19.7%, 4.2%, and 4.1% of the market share, respectively.
Bitcoin experienced significant fluctuations between “breakthrough” and “volatility.” Starting at $61,213 at the beginning of the month, it quickly surpassed the previous high of $69,000 and reached a new all-time high of $73,068 on March 14. Although it briefly fell by 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 was closely related to the performance of the Bitcoin spot ETF in the US. The mid-month price decline was mainly influenced by slowed inflows into the Bitcoin spot ETF and traditional traders reducing leverage. However, the market’s anticipation of the Bitcoin halving event in April maintained its upward momentum.
In contrast, Ether’s price increase was relatively stable, starting at $3,344 and closing at $3,648. Although Ether’s increase was slightly lower than Bitcoin’s, it continued to grow steadily, partly due to the uncertain prospects of the US spot ETF for Ether. The Cancun upgrade on March 13 aimed to reduce Ethereum’s transaction costs, thus promoting activities within its ecosystem.
The token prices of BNB and Solana both saw significant increases, with gains of 48.8% and 56.0% respectively, increasing their token market share by approximately 1% in the month.
AI-related tokens saw significant growth in March. Sam Altman’s re-entry into the OpenAI board after experiencing dismissal and rehiring 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 prices and market value of the NEAR Chain surged by 84%.
The widespread adoption of AI deepened public understanding and acceptance of AI, making the concept of “AI + crypto” more popular and easily understood. AI concept tokens gained increasing attention, further promoting the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Memes also played an important role in driving mass adoption in the crypto world. Solana gained attention due to the surge in Meme-related activities. Tokens like $BOME and $SLERF quickly rose in price, attracting active participation from community members. This phenomenon fully demonstrated the potential of Meme in rapidly creating wealth and generated widespread FOMO sentiment in the market. As an easily accessible and understandable entry point, Meme helps lower barriers and attract more people to explore the Web3 space.
TON (The Open Network) and its closely associated social app Telegram had a significant impact on driving mass adoption. Particularly in March, Telegram announced the expansion of its advertising platform to nearly 100 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, with all transactions conducted through TON. This greatly facilitated on-chain activities for TON. In March, the price and market value of Toncoin doubled, reaching an all-time high. Leveraging Telegram’s large user base and seamless dApp integration, TON simplifies access to Web3. Combined with Telegram’s strong marketing capabilities, the TON ecosystem is expected to become 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, twice the value in February. This growth was mainly driven by the Meme frenzy, which greatly increased online activity and attracted a large influx of capital. DeFi dApps on Solana, such as the DEX aggregator Jupiter, gained high attention and user participation.
Layer 2
With the booming cryptocurrency market and the help 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 occupying about 70% of the market share.
Base’s TVL increased by 87.3%, and active users (wallets) grew by 29.6%, mainly due to the appeal of Meme coins like $DEGEN. Additionally, the launch of Coinbase’s smart wallet further boosted ecosystem activity. This smart wallet simplifies the user registration process with Account Abstraction (AA) technology, integrating touch ID or Google account, thereby greatly enhancing Base’s user acquisition capabilities.
After the completion of the Cancun upgrade on Ethereum, the average transaction fees on Layer 2 networks saw significant reductions. Arbitrum and Starknet reduced on-chain transaction costs by over 95%. This significant fee reduction marks the official entry of the Ethereum ecosystem into the “one cent era.”
Discussions about Layer 3 are intensifying, with various opinions being expressed. Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, recently questioned the necessity of Layer 3 and explained Polygon’s decision not to develop Layer 3. Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, pointed 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 game players showed that Ronin, Polygon, and BNB Chain were the platforms with 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 growing by 6.3% and 7.8% 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. Ronin showed strong expansion momentum despite having fewer than 10 games. 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 improve infrastructure. This proposal requires approval from the Arbitrum DAO.
Meanwhile, the Starknet Foundation is also taking active steps by establishing 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 trends in the Web3 Gaming Report for March 2024 from Footprint Analytics.
Public Chain Financing
In March, the public chain sector experienced significant growth with 23 financing events, totaling $380 million in investments, a 160.2% increase from February. In this wave of investment, Optimism, Berachain, and Eclipse stood out, receiving significant funding of $89 million, $69 million, and $50 million respectively.
Among these 23 financing events, the funds were distributed across three categories: 8 focused on Layer 1, 7 on Bitcoin Layer 2, and another 8 mainly on Ethereum Layer 2. Although the disclosed highest investment amount for Bitcoin Layer 2 was only $10 million, the Bitcoin ecosystem has been gaining increasing 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 platform, based on Cosmos and compatible with EVM, 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 came from the undistributed OP token treasury and, based on 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 Highlights
With the Meme coin frenzy, 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 blockchain linear scalability with its technology prototype “Pilotfish” on Sui.
Google now supports searching Bitcoin, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon, and Fantom 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 investment advice. The market carries risks, and investments should be made with caution.
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