Overview of Twelve Highly Valued New Public Chains

Author: Koala, Mars Finance

The horn of the digital new era has sounded, and public chain technology is reshaping the future of finance and technology with its revolutionary power.

According to data from the SoSoValue website, the overall market performance of public chains (L1 and L2) is as follows:

Layer 1 (L1) public chains account for 9.86% of the total market capitalization in the cryptocurrency market. In the past 24 hours, the overall increase of L1 public chains was +0.89%.

BNB (Binance Coin) has a market capitalization of $83.05B, a price of $569.3, and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.02B; Solana (SOL) has a market capitalization of $66.24B, a price of $142.01, and a 24-hour trading volume of $2.53B; TRON (TRX) has a market capitalization of $12.97B, a price of $0.1492, and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.77B.

These data indicate that L1 public chains hold an important position in the cryptocurrency market and show certain growth potential in the short term.

Layer 2 (L2) public chains account for 6.67% of the total market capitalization in the cryptocurrency market, with an overall increase of +6.66% in 24 hours. L2 public chains attract users with lower transaction fees and higher transaction speeds, gradually occupying an important position in the use of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized applications (dApps). Overall, L1 and L2 public chains perform steadily in the market, and with the continuous development of blockchain technology, their market share and influence are expected to further expand.

Currently, public chains are rapidly establishing a foothold in emerging fields such as DeFi, NFTs, and dApps with lower transaction fees and faster transaction speeds. This is not just a minor fluctuation in the digital currency market, but a strong testament to the core position of public chain technology in driving the development of the entire cryptocurrency market. As technology continues to mature and innovate, we have reason to believe that the market share and influence of L1 and L2 public chains will usher in a more glorious future.

This article aims to analyze representative new star projects in the public chain ecosystem, and more importantly, these public chains have expectations for token issuance in the second half of the year.

1. MONAD

A high-performance blockchain platform compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), designed to significantly improve transaction speed and scalability through parallel execution technology, capable of processing over 10,000 transactions per second.

In April of this year, Layer1 blockchain Monad Labs announced the completion of a funding round of up to $225 million, the largest cryptocurrency project funding so far in 2024, led by investment firm Paradigm, with participation from investors including IOSG Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Electric Capital, and Greenoaks.

Monad Labs aims to enhance the performance of the Ethereum Virtual Machine through its parallel EVM Layer1 project Monad, introducing parallel execution and superscalar pipeline technology to address the low throughput issues of existing EVM-compatible blockchains.

2. Aleo

Aleo is a blockchain project focused on privacy protection, achieving higher privacy and scalability through zero-knowledge proof technology (ZKP). The core idea of Aleo is to enable users to authenticate and process data without disclosing personal information.

Aleo completed a $28 million Series A funding round led by a16z in 2021 and raised $200 million in a Series B funding round in 2024, with investors including Kora Management, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, Sea Capital, Slow Ventures, and Samsung Next. This funding round brought Aleo's valuation to $1.45 billion.

The core of Aleo is the zero-knowledge proof (ZKPs) technology, which allows transactions and smart contract executions to be conducted while maintaining privacy. Transaction details, such as sender and transaction amount, are hidden by default. This design not only protects user privacy but also allows for selective disclosure when necessary, making it very suitable for the development of DeFi applications.

3. Aztec Network

Aztec Network is a privacy ZK-rollup on Ethereum that enables decentralized applications to access privacy and scalability. Aztec's rollup is protected by the industry-standard PLONK proof mechanism used by leading zero-knowledge scaling projects.

Aztec Network has raised a total of $119 million, with investments from Paradigm, a16z, and others. As the first private ZK-rollup on Ethereum, it aims to provide privacy protection and scalability for decentralized applications.

Aztec Network builds privacy abstractions, offering developers smart contract privacy, supporting default anonymity, private state read/write capabilities, and the execution of private smart contract functions. Aztec is based on a UTXO data architecture, allowing its smart contract privacy to incorporate programmable privacy at the state variable and function level, enabling developers to call the desired functions.

4. Scroll

Scroll is an EVM-compatible zk-Rollup based on zero-knowledge proof technology, aimed at supporting the development of decentralized applications by improving Ethereum's scalability and privacy protection. It allows users to verify transactions without disclosing raw data and achieves seamless compatibility with existing Ethereum infrastructure.

It has raised a total of $80 million, with investments from Polychain, Robot Ventures, and others.

As a member of the zk-Rollup sector, Scroll collaborates with the PSE team supported by the Ethereum Foundation to develop zkEVM. Although the PSE team has recently shifted its focus to zkVM, Scroll maintains its unique orthodoxy and explores new zero-knowledge proof and hardware acceleration technologies to launch a more secure, efficient, and highly scalable zk-Rollup network.

Additionally, Scroll introduced EIP-4844 data blobs on April 29, 2024, to achieve Layer1 data availability. The emergence of EIP-4844 significantly optimizes Layer2 solutions and effectively alleviates data availability issues. The report further points out that as Scroll's mainnet goes live, its ecosystem is continuously improving, with community incentive activities and hackathons attracting more users and developers.

5. Espresso Systems

Espresso Systems is an EVM-compatible blockchain that provides scalability and privacy systems for Web 3 applications. By combining the PoS consensus protocol with zk Rollup mechanisms, Espresso Systems packages multiple transactions in a more resource-efficient manner. Espresso Systems' configurable asset privacy smart contract applications can provide users with customizable privacy regarding sender and receiver addresses, as well as the quantity and type of assets held or transferred. These elements can be set to public, private, or transparent only to selected parties.

It has raised a total of $60 million, with investments from a16z, Electric Capital, and others.

The core of Espresso Systems' strategy is focused on privacy and decentralization. Its privacy system is unique in that it deploys configurable asset privacy (CAPE) smart contracts on Ethereum. "Configurable asset privacy" allows users to customize entries such as asset quantity, category, sender, and receiver addresses. Users can choose which information to disclose and to whom.

6. Eclipse

Eclipse is a high-performance Layer 2 solution based on Ethereum, utilizing the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) for fast execution. It combines the security of Ethereum with the data availability of Celestia, supporting the development of decentralized applications with high transaction volumes and low fees.

It has raised a total of $65 million, with investments from Polychain, OKX Ventures, and others.

Eclipse is the first SVM Layer2 on Ethereum, with its mainnet launched in Q1 2024. Ethereum currently still views Rollup as a core development route, and setting aside the topic of orthodoxy, this means that Ethereum has largely left the broad definition of Layer2 to the market, so the empowerment on the surface also hides various forms of competition. Eclipse leverages this point, using modular development to combine Ethereum's security, Solana's high performance, and Celestia's DA for a strong market narrative.

7. berachain

Berachain is a high-performance EVM-compatible blockchain built on a proof of liquidity consensus. Proof of liquidity is a novel consensus mechanism designed to coordinate network incentives and establish strong synergies between Berachain validators and the project ecosystem. Berachain's technology is built on Polaris, a high-performance blockchain framework for constructing EVM-compatible chains on top of the CometBFT consensus engine.

On May 13, 2024, it was announced that Jack Melnick, former DeFi head of Polygon Labs, joined Layer 1 developer Berachain in the same position. Berachain completed a $100 million Series B funding round in April, led by Brevan Howard Digital and Framework Ventures. Currently, the project is valued at $420 million.

Berachain is a Layer 1 blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK, compatible with EVM, and protected by the Proof of Liquidity consensus mechanism. Its three-token system (BERA, HONEY, BGT) is not only unique but also endows the network with powerful functionality and flexibility.

In July 2024, it was officially announced that the joint testnet (Co-Testnet) launched by Berachain and Particle Network is now online.

8. Movement

Movement is a modular framework for building and deploying Move-based infrastructure, applications, and blockchains in any distributed environment. The team is building a suite of products and services that allow non-Move protocols to leverage the powerful capabilities of the Move programming language without writing a single line of Move code. The team's first version, M1, redefines Layer 1 as a vertically composable and horizontally scalable first-layer framework that is compatible with Solidity, connecting EVM and Move liquidity, and allowing builders to customize modular and interoperable application chains out of the box with different user bases and liquidity.

Movement has received investment from Binance Labs. In its Series A funding round, Movement raised $38 million from top institutions including Polychain and Hack VC. This demonstrates Movement's strong capabilities and market recognition.

Movement is the breakthrough solution to the current challenges in the Move ecosystem. Movement aims to connect the security and high-performance advantages of the Move language with the liquidity and large user base of the EVM ecosystem, achieving a combined advantage. Through the Movement SDK, developers can automatically convert Solidity scripts into opcodes understandable by Move without writing Move code, achieving interoperability compatible with Ethereum and other EVM networks, perfectly integrating the advantages of the Move language with the thriving Ethereum ecosystem.

9. Linera

Linera is a blockchain protocol designed with low-latency applications in mind. The project draws on academic research initiated by Facebook/Novi, such as the FastPay protocol and the Zef protocol (slides). Linera belongs to the Level 1 chain, aiming to provide a secure, highly scalable, low-latency blockchain to give Web3 applications faster response times.

Linera announced the completion of a $6 million seed funding round, led by a16z, with participation from Cygni Capital, Kima Ventures, and Tribe Capital.

Linera's founder and CEO, Mathieu Baudet, is a former employee of Meta and helped create the Libra blockchain. The Linera blockchain features low latency and linear scalability, composed of sharding or single-threading, adding extra validators to improve network efficiency, allowing most account-based operations to be confirmed in fractions of a second.

10. Anoma Network

Anoma is an intent-centric privacy architecture that introduces a new paradigm for building infrastructure layers and a new operating system for decentralized applications. Anoma's intent-centric approach introduces novel primitives that allow existing web2.5 dApps to be fully decentralized, such as optimistic and ZK rollups, DEXs, NFT marketplaces, or public goods funding applications like Gitcoin.

The project raised $6.75 million in its Series A funding round, also led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures, FBG Capital, CMS Holdings, Lemniscap, Cygni Labs, and Walden Bridge Capital.

Subsequently, Anoma Network announced it raised $26 million, led by venture fund Polychain Capital, with additional participation from Fifth Era, Maven Capital, Zola Capital, Electric Capital, and CMCC.

Anoma aims to create a system that allows any digital asset to serve as a means of exchange or payment, enabling individuals to choose any asset class in transactions. Unlike existing financial platforms, Anoma's goal is to facilitate users' ability to use any asset in private payment processes rather than introducing specific assets as currency. Here, "any asset" refers to goods, services, or anything of value that can be digitally represented, including assets created on Anoma, assets transferred from other blockchains through interoperability protocols, and fiat currencies in the form of stablecoins.

11. GASP

Gasp is an L2 cross-rollup protocol with a vision to make Ethereum the settlement layer for all cross-chain transactions. Gasp provides native cross-chain transactions without relying on traditional cross-chain bridges, ensuring user funds can be withdrawn at any time through escape hatches, ZK proofs, and decentralized sequencers. Gasp was initially incubated by Polychain and launched in the Polkadot ecosystem in 2020.

The latest funding round raised $5 million to support this mission, with contributions from Cluster Capital, Polychain Capital, Master Ventures, Faculty Group, Moonhill, LVT Capital, CMS, Token Metrics, and others. This is also the project's third funding activity, bringing the total funds raised to $11 million.

As a native cross-rollup protocol, Gasp aims to facilitate gasless, MEV-protected, and fast cross-rollup swaps. The protocol achieves this by utilizing technologies such as escape hatches, ZK proofs, and decentralized sequencers.

What makes Gasp's approach special is that it ensures trustless transactions through decentralized mechanisms, enhancing security and reducing risks compared to centralized single points of failure and other traditional bridging mechanisms. Gasp also eliminates the need for wrapped tokens.

12. Talus

Talus Network is a blockchain platform focused on decentralized artificial intelligence. The network leverages the powerful capabilities of Move, emphasizing security, speed, and an enhanced developer experience. Talus Network creates a future that empowers users in a fair and accessible way by cultivating a diverse ecosystem of intelligent agents for decentralized applications.

Talus Network completed a $3 million first-round funding, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from dao5, Hash3, TRGC, WAGMI Ventures, and Inception Capital. Additionally, angel investors from major tech and blockchain companies such as NVIDIA, IBM, Blue7, Symbolic Capital, and Render Network have contributed to support the team's mission of democratizing AI on the blockchain.

Talus is an AI public chain platform based on the Move language. It features high performance and is optimized for AI use cases, allowing AI agents to interact and transact within the system. Talus participants can build a new economy of AI applications from a universal protocol with accessible resources.

Talus's AI agents can provide functional support and optimization across multiple domains, such as offering wallet analysis tools, real-time monitoring of transaction statuses, and enhancing user asset management experiences. In the DeFi space, it can optimize liquidity management, automate on-chain portfolios, and improve capital efficiency and returns, as well as support automated asset management and governance decision-making for DAOs.