OP Research: Layer2 New Battlefield, Blast Ecosystem Explosion

Source: OP Research

Blast Ignites the L2 Native Yield Wave

Blast is the first L2 blockchain network specifically designed to provide passive income opportunities for funds within Layer 2 accounts. Users deposit funds into Blast, which immediately locks the corresponding ETH on the Layer 1 network for native staking, automatically returning the ETH staking rewards to users on Blast. In addition to supporting native staking of ETH, Blast also offers passive income opportunities for stablecoins.

This "barbarian" approach is enough to shake the current status of traditional Layer 2. Previous Layer 2 solutions focused on improving performance, expanding RaaS, and multi-chain narratives. At the beginning of 2022, we were still discussing whether the future of Blockchain would be multi-chain or ETH + Layer 2.

Now, Cosmos has retreated to the sidelines, with Layer 2 solutions like Optimism/Arbitrum/Polygon/zkSync grabbing attention, and funds and developers voting with their feet to invest in and settle on Layer 2. However, Blast's approach is a new path that may represent a new paradigm for the development of Layer 2.

Therefore, compared to typical Layer 2 solutions, Blast, as an Optimistic Rollup, continues the operational habits of EVM users while opening up entirely new income opportunities. Since its launch, Blast has gathered over 1.3 billion in TVL in just 2 months, breaking the record for the fastest growth in L2, sparking a wave of other L2 Native Yield.

BIG BANG!

Blast's Big Bang Competition

Big Bang is a month-long "arms race" hosted by Blast from January 17 to February 17, divided into three phases:

• Intent Registration
• Project Submission
• Winner Selection

At the same time, Big Bang provides 8 tracks for participating Dapps to choose from, with each project needing to select one track for the final submission of their DEMO and presentation video, competing alongside other projects in the same track.

Opportunities in Big Bang

Blast offers substantial rewards for Dapps participating in the Big Bang competition to incentivize projects to deploy and operate on Blast.

First, Blast will release ETH locked liquidity in February, allowing Dapps deployed on Blast to share in the released 1.4 billion TVL and engage with 104k users involved in the lock-up. This presents a great cold start opportunity for any project.

Second, all project teams participating in Big Bang will receive personalized guidance from Investors.

Finally, Blast has reserved 50% of the total AirDrop to incentivize developers, with less than 10% allocated to Big Bang Winners, while over 90% will be distributed to Dapps on the Blast mainnet, marking the largest airdrop ever for developers.

Additionally, users interacting on Blast's testnet will not receive any rewards, but there may be opportunities for interaction incentives once on the mainnet.

Overview of the Blast Ecosystem

Since Blast announced Big Bang, over 60 projects have declared partnerships with Blast and will be building on it. Below are 7 projects we selected that are worth early tracking:

• PumpX: PumpX is a multichain consumer liquidity protocol that decentralizedly organizes idle funds scattered across different blockchains to provide financial support for on-chain asset transactions, enhancing trading depth and activity. The PumpX protocol offers project-level lending features in checkout pages for project teams, decentralized wallets, and trading markets, integrating consumer liquidity gathered on Blast. PumpX is also one of Binance's most valuable projects (MVB), backed by top institutions like IOSG, HashKey, and Distributed Capital. Some of PumpX's smart contracts have already been deployed on the Blast testnet for debugging. PumpX has announced subsequent airdrop collaborations with Blast, making it worth continued attention.
• Pyth Network: Pyth aims to provide real-time market data for financial dApps on the blockchain. This means that whether it's cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs, forex pairs, or commodities, Pyth can offer users over 380 low-latency price feeds.
• Quick Node: QuickNode is a blockchain development platform that provides reliable infrastructure, hosted RPC services, elastic APIs, and robust analytics necessary for successful scaling for projects of all sizes. With globally distributed multichain infrastructure and auto-scaling, QuickNode supports applications throughout the entire growth process from MVP to mass adoption in the Web3 ecosystem.
• Thruster: Thruster is Blast's native DEX, benefiting traders, LPs, and developers by leveraging Blast's native yield, customized liquidity solutions, and a more streamlined user interface/user experience.
• The Graph: Known as the "decentralized Google" of the crypto world, The Graph uses indexing and querying methods similar to Google but offers a more open and accessible way to query and utilize data on a decentralized basis. Developers can create and query their own data subgraphs via The Graph, making the entire Ethereum ecosystem more open and interconnected.
• Ambient: Ambient is a decentralized trading protocol that allows for bidirectional AMM combining centralized and environment-constant product liquidity on any pair of blockchain assets. Ambient operates the entire DEX within a single smart contract, where a single AMM pool is a lightweight data structure rather than a standalone smart contract. This design makes Ambient the most efficient Ethereum-based DEX currently.
• RedStone: RedStone is an oracle that provides frequently updated, reliable, and diverse data sources for multiple L1 and L2 DApps and smart contracts.

Other Early Projects to Watch

• Spot Dex Direction:

Monoswap, a V3 liquidity hub with native yield.

IgniteFi, a community-ecosystem-based Dex.

RingProtocol, a Dex with breakthrough features.

MidNight, a decentralized exchange based on the Ve 33 model with Blast native yield.

StarSwap, a multichain Dex.

Blasterfi, offering up to 50x yield and 2x airdrop from Blast.

Roguex, an innovative Dex where spot and futures can be traded in the same pool.

Tntswap, a Dex integrating Tokens, NFTs, games, and DAOs.

HyperBlastDex, an AMM model Dex with native yield.

Blasted, a Dex with yield.

Several other DEXs like BlastSwap, Interport Finance, BrewLabs have also announced plans to build on Blast.

• Futures Dex Direction:

NFTPerp, providing contract trading for NFTs.

EasyX, offering up to 100x leverage trading without KYC.

CyberFinance, a derivatives protocol.

Particle, providing permissionless leveraged trading services.

Prism, a new trading dimension.

• Infrastructure Direction:

RilleProtocol, an innovative DeFi risk quantification/transfer solution.

MoonBlast, a LaunchPad based on EVM L2.

BlastDomains and BNS, providing Blast domain services.

BlastOff, a LaunchPad with native yield.

CSRfi, an infrastructure protocol promoting sustainable yield.

• Lending Direction:

MIM Spell, a stablecoin lending protocol. Natrium Protocol, optimizing lending returns through flexible trading pairs. Wand, a non-liquidation asset structuring protocol. HadouKen, a comprehensive lending protocol. Zest, a stablecoin lending protocol. Maneki, a permissionless lending protocol.

• NFT Direction:

Wassies, BlastPenguines, BlastoPians,

5 0x 50, Defusion, DegenDNA, CSPEPE.

• Gaming Direction:

Kangiten, Vroom.bet, Blastoise,

BAC Games, Risk, Metaverse Headquarters.

In this new Layer 2 battle, the success of the Big Bang competition marks a new starting point for the Blast ecosystem. In just three days, Blast has attracted 60 projects from various tracks, injecting vibrant energy into this ecosystem. However, we believe this is just the beginning; more high-quality projects will join in the future to build a more prosperous and diverse Blast Layer 2 ecosystem together.

As more projects integrate, the Blast ecosystem will continue to grow and solidify. The future has arrived, and the footsteps of a bull market have already begun to sound. The flight guide for the Blast Layer 2 ecosystem has been drawn up; let us welcome this hopeful and opportunity-filled bull market together!