Overview of Q3 performance of 16 L1 public chains: Solana has the fastest growth in circulation market value
Original author: Peter Horton, Messari
Original compilation: Felix, PANews
This report summarizes and compares the financial, network and ecological status of 16 L1 blockchains in the third quarter. These L1 public chains include: Aptos, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Cardano, Celo, Cosmos Hub, EOS, Fantom, Hedera, NEAR, Polkadot, Polygon, SKALE, Solana, Tezos and WAX.
Financial overview
The market was relatively calm in the third quarter, with mostly sideways trading. A favorable U.S. SEC court ruling in a lawsuit against Ripple in mid-July sparked a rally in the market, but a sell-off during August gave up gains. Overall, the total market value of the 16 public chains was US$272.6 billion, down 9.8% month-on-month; Ethereum accounted for 73.6%, down 0.2% month-on-month, basically the same.
The highest growth in circulating market capitalization was Solana (SOL), which increased by 16.6% month-on-month to $8.4 billion; the second was Hedera (HBAR), which increased by 7.6% month-on-month to $1.7 billion; the third was Celo (CELO), which increased by 5.6% month-on-month to $1.7 billion. $200 million.
The total revenue of the 16 public chains was US$491.5 million, a decrease of 46.7% from the previous month. Ethereum’s revenue fell by 47.3% month-on-month, but still accounted for more than 90% of the total revenue of 16 public chains. The decline was second only to Polygon (down 55.6% month-on-month) and Avalanche (down 58.1% month-on-month). Overall, lower Q3 revenue suggests lower demand for block space.
Revenue (native token) growth
In early July, the launch of Chingari, an Indian short video social application, stimulated Aptos’ revenue growth. Quarter-over-quarter growth of 162% to 42,000 APT (approximately $268,000).
NEAR maintained its second-highest quarter-on-quarter growth at 56%, driven by AI-based lock screen platform KAIKAINOW. (Note: Cosmose AI Company has released a new technology called KAIKAINOW, which uses technologies such as AI and blockchain. KAIKAINOW is built on the NEAR protocol and can help users obtain information and information without having to unlock the phone screen. interact with the world around you)
Liquidity supply and token unlocking
The chart below is a measure of liquidity as a percentage of the initial token distribution, excluding staking rewards, and the amount that will be unlocked in Q4.
Tokenomics
Inflation (y-axis), eligible supply staking (x-axis), and real earnings (circle size)
Higher inflation leads to higher staking rates because more token holders choose not to be diluted. As the staking ratio decreases (fewer people share in the rewards) and economic activity increases (the proportion of rewards for non-inflationary tokens increases), the real yield increases. In addition to inflation, staking rates are affected by factors such as the presence of native delegation and whether locked tokens can be staked (e.g., 374% of APT’s circulating supply is staked)
Network overview
The average daily transaction volume of Ethereum side chain SKALE increased by 241% month-on-month to 719,000 transactions, mainly driven by the Web3 protocol Exorde. Exorde encourages users to collect and submit data from social networks for use in creating market sentiment ratings, identifying trends, and other analytical tools.
In September, Cosmose Al launched the KAlKAINOW lock screen platform, which increased NEARs daily average active addresses by 346% month-on-month to 257,600. The platform leverages blockchain and artificial intelligence technology to push curated content from news to games to users’ home screens. To incentivize user participation, the system rewards users with KAl-CHING tokens via the NEAR blockchain, which can be purchased online and offline.
In July, video-sharing mobile app Chingari integrated with Aptos, allowing its average daily new addresses to grow 410% month-on-month to 34,700. Chingari was originally launched as a Web2 platform in 2018 and has since been downloaded more than 100 million times on the Google Play Store. Its GARI token can be used to reward creators, improve content, governance, etc.
average transaction fees
The average transaction fee on the Ethereum chain is $4.75, far higher than other public chains. Cardano and BNB Chain are tied for second place, with average transaction fees at $0.1. Followed by Avalanche ($0.07), Cosmos Hub ($0.04), Fantom ($0.03), Polygon ($0.02), Aptos ($0.01), Tezos ($0.002), NEAR ($0.002), Celo ($0.001) , Solana ($0.0002).
Total pledge value
The total pledge value on the Ethereum chain ranks first with US$44 billion, followed by Solana (US$8.2 billion), Cardano (US$5.7 billion), BNB Chain (US$4.9 billion), Aptos (US$4.8 billion), Polkadot (28 billion), Avalanche ($2.1 billion).
Ecological overview
As expected in the market downturn, DeFi TVL denominated in US dollars fell across the board, falling 16.4% month-on-month to $31.9 billion. Ethereum’s DeFi TVL fell 14% month-on-month to $26.3 billion, but retained 82% of the market share.
Solana leads the way in DeFi TVL growth as “Solana DeFi 2.0” gains momentum. The 32% growth was driven by points programs launched by DeFi and liquidity staking protocols, especially protocols such as MarginFiJito, Cypher and BlazeStake.
The market value of stablecoins is US$74.9 billion, continuing to decline, down 5.7% month-on-month. The third quarter hit a yearly low. Events such as Operation Chokepoint 2.0 introduced by regulators, the temporary decoupling of USDC, and rising interest rates have led to a reduction in stablecoin supply. However, the downward trend is slowing and may be nearing a bottom.
Cardano led L1 stablecoin growth for the third consecutive quarter, with year-to-date growth of 463%. Yet still ranked 32nd among all networks with $15.7 million. Without native USDC or USDT integration, Cardano’s success relies on native protocols like Indigo and Djed, which launched last year.
DEX trading volume continued to decline in the third quarter. This was down 27.8% sequentially, with average daily trading volume at $1.3 billion. Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana and Avalanche account for 99% of the L1 public chain DEX trading volume. Among these five public chains, Solana’s DEX trading volume dropped the least, down 6% month-on-month. BNB Chain’s DEX trading volume fell 44% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter, after growing 62% quarter-on-quarter in the previous quarter.
Hedera’s DEX trading volume surged in mid-August, with average daily DEX trading volume increasing by 16% month-on-month. This growth was primarily driven by increased activity in the USDC-HBAR pool on SaucerSwap, a fork of Uniswap.
Celo is the only mainstream L1 blockchain whose average daily DEX trading volume increased by 2% month-on-month.
DeFi Diversification
DeFi diversity measures the number of protocols that make up the top 90% of total DeFi TVL on the network. Ethereum and Solana are in first and second place.
NFT trading volume continues to decline, falling every month in the third quarter. Average daily trading volume was $12.1 million in July, $10.5 million in August, and $73,000 in September. By the end of the quarter, NFT trading volume fell to a yearly low of $5.6 million. Ethereum continues to hold over 70% of the market with an average daily trading volume of $7 million, followed by Solana ($1.1 million) and Polygon ($982,000).
Polygon is close to Ethereum with average daily NFT buyers of 11,300 and 11,900 respectively. The growth in Polygon NFT activity is driven by DraftKings’ Reignmaker NFT series, where players use their collections of officially licensed NFT cards from the NFLPA, PGA Tour and UFC to compete in fantasy sports tournaments. In September, Reignmaker had more than 30,000 unique buyers, with an average sales price of $28.
The number of full-time developers fell 14% month-on-month to 36,000. However, a recent report from Electric Capital showed that the decrease in developers is mainly due to the departure of newcomers (those who have been working in the crypto space for less than 12 months). Ethereum’s market share increased by 27% month-on-month to 53%.
