June 2024 Public Chain Industry Research Report: Market Correction, Bitcoin and Ethereum Layer 2 Perform Differently

Author: stella@footprint.network

Data Source: Public Chain Research Page

In June, the cryptocurrency market faced significant challenges. Bitcoin experienced increased market uncertainty due to the upcoming Mt. Gox compensation payments and government liquidation pressures. Although the progress of the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF brought positive signals, the total market capitalization of public chain tokens still recorded a 7.7% decline, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the drop. However, Toncoin, TRON, and Kaspa were exceptions, achieving growth. Meanwhile, the total value locked (TVL) in public chains decreased by 18.7%, but Core Chain saw significant growth. In terms of scaling solutions, Ethereum's Layer 2 and Bitcoin's scaling solutions performed differently, while Solana's gaming Layer 2 project Sonic also joined the Layer 2 race.

The data in this report comes from Footprint Analytics' Public Chain Research Page. This page provides an easy-to-use dashboard containing the most critical statistics and metrics in the public chain field, updated in real-time.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview

Ongoing selling pressure from multiple fronts has taken a heavy toll on Bitcoin. On June 24, the Mt. Gox bankruptcy trustee announced that compensation for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) would begin in July 2024, triggering widespread uncertainty in the market regarding the timeline for creditors converting assets into fiat currency. Meanwhile, net outflows were observed in the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF in the latter half of June.

Government actions are also noteworthy. A German government agency began liquidating Bitcoin seized in 2013, transferring nearly 4,000 Bitcoins to exchanges in June. At the same time, the U.S. government transferred 3,940 Bitcoins seized from a convicted drug dealer's wallet to Coinbase.

Despite the smooth progress of the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF, Bitcoin's weakness seems to have spread throughout the entire cryptocurrency market.

Public Chain Overview

In June, the cryptocurrency market experienced a significant pullback. By the end of the month, the total market capitalization of public chain cryptocurrencies fell by 7.7% month-on-month, settling at $1.95 trillion. Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana continued to dominate the market, with market shares of 63.3%, 21.2%, 4.4%, and 3.5%, respectively.

Data Source: June 2024 Public Chain Token Market Capitalization Share

Bitcoin's price fell from $67,730 at the beginning of the month to $62,795 by the end, a decline of 7.3%. Ethereum's price also dropped from $3,820 at the beginning of the month to $3,444 by the end, a decrease of 9.8%.

Data Source: Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Trends

Despite the general decline in token prices in June, three tokens among the top fifteen public chain tokens bucked the trend, with both price and market capitalization increasing: Toncoin, TRON, and Kaspa.

Toncoin stood out with the launch of the Open League token incentive program by TON and the growing popularity of Telegram games. Toncoin reached an all-time high of $8.2 in mid-June, rising against the trend.

TRON's token price increased by 10.8% throughout the month, returning to mid-May levels and continuing an upward trend that began in February 2024.

The Layer 1 network Kaspa, which uses a blockDAG (Block Directed Acyclic Graph) architecture, achieved significant growth in token price in June, rising by 37.7% and reaching an all-time high of $0.19 on June 30. Kaspa's appeal is growing, as evidenced by Bitcoin mining giant MARA expanding its mining operations to include Kaspa, marking MARA's official transformation into a multi-currency cryptocurrency mining enterprise.

Data Source: End of June 2024 Public Chain Token Prices and Market Capitalization

By the end of June, the TVL of public chains dropped to $72.2 billion, a decrease of 18.7% compared to May. In this field, Ethereum, TRON, and BNB Chain continued to maintain their leading positions.

Among the top fifteen public chains, only TON's TVL saw growth, increasing by 106.8%, while all other chains experienced declines.

In other public chains, Core Chain performed outstandingly, achieving an astonishing 227.7% growth in TVL over the month. This significant growth momentum followed Coinbase's inclusion of CORE in its roadmap at the end of May. To support BTCfi, Core Chain has taken a series of proactive measures, including launching the Core Ignition Drop and hosting the BTCfi Summer hackathon, successfully attracting more DeFi projects to join and driving rapid growth in its TVL.

Data Source: End of June 2024 Public Chain TVL

Additionally, the Solana Foundation launched cutting-edge tools aimed at transforming websites, applications, social media, and QR codes into starting points for cryptocurrency transactions on the Solana blockchain. Among these, the "Actions" tool allows users to complete on-chain transactions directly on web pages, social platforms, and QR codes, while "Blinks" converts these transactions into shareable links, promoting widespread dissemination of on-chain interactions. Together, these tools transform the internet into a distributed network of on-chain interactions, accelerating Solana's mainstream adoption.

Major Layer 1 Public Chains Developments in June 2024

BNB Chain

• BNB price briefly reached an all-time high of $710.

• BNB Chain completed the Haber hard fork upgrade, which is expected to reduce gas fees by up to 90%.

Solana

• 21Shares has submitted S-1 documents for a Solana ETF to the U.S. SEC.

NEAR

• The NEAR Foundation established Nuffle Labs and received $13 million in funding.

Sui

• The Sui Foundation: The Sui Bridge testnet is now live, and an incentive program has been launched.

Polygon

• The digital identity solution Polygon ID has been spun off from Polygon Labs and renamed Privado ID.

Ronin

• Ronin announced plans to develop Layer 2 solutions using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK).

Layer 2

In June, despite some progress in the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF, Ethereum Layer 2 faced a downward trend under market pullback pressure. Arbitrum and Optimism, as leaders in this field, saw their TVL decline by 10.5% and 22.2%, respectively. On the other hand, with the conclusion of Phase 1 airdrop activities, Blast's TVL also decreased by 22.0%. In contrast, Base and Linea's TVL remained relatively stable, close to May levels.

However, Scroll experienced significant growth, with its TVL soaring by 42.8%. This positive change followed the launch of the Scroll Sessions airdrop Points program, which officially started on June 21. Session One aimed to incentivize liquidity, particularly rewarding DeFi users who provided liquidity in DEX.

Data Source: June 2024 Ethereum Layer 2 Overview - Rollups (Bridge-related Metrics)

In June, airdrops became a hot topic in the Ethereum Layer 2 space, including popular airdrop activities from zkSync, Blast, and other LayerZero projects. Although these airdrops sparked widespread attention and discussion on social media, they also came with considerable controversy. zkSync faced criticism for its lengthy airdrop cycle and perceived unfair distribution issues. LayerZero encountered opposition due to its strict anti-"witch hunt" measures and the requirement to donate before receiving rewards. As for Blast, its complex reward mechanism and the gap between actual rewards and expectations led to dissatisfaction among participants, triggering strong backlash within the community.

Despite the controversies, airdrops continue to hold their position as a valuable marketing tool in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They not only effectively attract new users but also generate buzz within communities and encourage active participation. To further optimize future airdrop activities, we should focus on enhancing transparency, ensuring fairness, and simplifying processes.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin scaling solutions have seen a surge in TVL since Q4 2023, particularly with Merlin Chain, Bitlayer, and Rootstock performing particularly well. Despite the market pullback in June, the Bitcoin ecosystem welcomed a vibrant and innovative summer.

Data Source: Bitcoin Ecosystem TVL

Major Layer 2 Public Chains Developments in June 2024

Arbitrum

• Influenced by the ZRO (LayerZero) airdrop, Arbitrum achieved record daily revenue and profit.

Optimism

• Optimism announced on X platform that OP Stack has officially entered Stage 1.

Starknet

• StarkWare announced on X platform that its Layer 3 is about to launch.

Blast

• The Blast Foundation was established, subsequently revealing the vision for Blast.

Rootstock

• SushiSwap expanded to Rootstock.

Merlin Chain

• Merlin Chain launched a 210 million MERL ecosystem incentive program.

Blockchain Games

In June, there were a total of 1,580 active games across various chains. Among them, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum led the market with shares of 22.4%, 19.5%, and 16.1%, respectively.

At the same time, among 3 million DAU, Ronin, Polygon, and NEAR continued to lead but faced numerous challenges. Ronin's DAU share dropped from 29.8% at the beginning of the month to 18.4% by the end, influenced by Pixels. Meanwhile, Polygon saw its largest DAU game, Matr1x FIRE, experience a 31.6% month-on-month decline in DAU, reducing its DAU share from 15.1% to 8.0%.

Oasys's Layer 2 Saakuru Verse saw significant growth in DAU during the last ten days of June. The successful launch of three games—Copycat Killer, Panic, and Parkour Battle—by Web3 game publisher PlayGround greatly boosted the on-chain DAU of Saakuru Verse, soaring from 18,000 on June 21 to 464,000 by June 30, with an average DAU of 379,000 in the last week. If this growth momentum continues, Saakuru Verse is expected to quickly rank among the top three blockchain platforms by DAU.

On the other hand, opBNB also performed well in the last week of June, with an average DAU of 285,000, accounting for nearly 10% of all DAU.

Data Source: Daily Active Users of Blockchain Games Across Public Chains

The public chain field is actively strengthening its gaming ecosystem, with specific measures including the launch of special grant programs for Web3 game developers. Additionally, building more chains has become a favored strategy. Ronin recently announced plans to build Layer 2 using the Polygon Development Kit (CDK), indicating that popular games like Axie Infinity and Pixels may run on their dedicated gaming chains in the future, aligning with strategies taken by platforms like Avalanche, Oasys, and SKALE. Whether this strategy and similar approaches will succeed remains to be seen.

For more data, see the "June 2024 Blockchain Game Research Report: Pixels Trigger DAU Fluctuations, Significant Differences in User Retention Rates."

Financing Situation

In June, the public chain sector completed a total of 11 financing rounds, raising a cumulative amount of $71.5 million, a decrease of 20.3% month-on-month. Among them, the specific amounts for three rounds of financing were not disclosed.

​June 2024 Public Chain Financing Events (Data Source: crypto-fundraising.info)

Decent Land Labs successfully raised $3 million to develop WeaveVM, an innovative sovereign Layer 1 blockchain solution that not only addresses the storage challenges of EVM but also cleverly integrates EVM compatibility with the powerful scalable storage capabilities provided by Arweave.

Sonic, a Solana Layer 2 network focused on gaming, successfully raised $12 million in Series A funding to deepen its game-centric network development. Initially starting as a mobile game on Solana, Sonic quickly identified infrastructure bottlenecks and decisively transformed into building an efficient game Layer 2 solution.