Review of the performance of 22 mainstream public chains in 2024: Half of the data declined, Hyperliquid ranked first in multiple metrics

Author: Frank, PANews

2024 is destined to be a remarkable year in the development of cryptocurrency. From the official approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs to former President Trump's proposal to use Bitcoin as a national strategic reserve, cryptocurrencies are gradually becoming an internationally recognized emerging asset class. Bitcoin has broken the $100,000 barrier, while MEME coins on Solana are emerging one after another, overshadowing many previously popular projects, resulting in a stark contrast in the crypto market. Behind these changes, public chains remain the core battleground of the crypto market, and all these competitions are reflected in the competition among public chains.

So, from a data perspective, which public chains truly experienced a rise in 2024? Which public chains' decline may not be underestimated but rather a real downturn? PANews conducted a review and summary on this.

Data Explanation: The focus of this review is on the popular Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains, looking at dimensions such as TVL, token prices, market capitalization, active addresses, and transaction volumes throughout the year, from January 1, 2024, to December 29, 2024. Some public chains that launched their mainnet in 2024 used the initial data at the time of their token launch and year-end data. TVL data is sourced from Defillama, daily active and transaction volume data from Tokenterminal and official explorers, and price data from Coingecko.

The public chains reviewed include:

Layer 1: Solana, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Sui, Aptos, TON, Avalanche, Cardano, Hyperliquid, Fantom (Sonic), Tron, Near

Layer 2: Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, Polygon, Blast, Scroll, StarkNet, Taiko, Linea.

Layer 1 TVL Average Growth of 7 Times, Hyperliquid and TON with Highest Increases

In terms of TVL data, overall, the TVL of the analyzed public chains grew by 117.7% over the year. Among them, Layer 1 saw an average TVL growth of 707.69% in 2024, while Layer 2 projects had an average TVL growth of 8515.22%. However, this is mainly due to the low initial TVL of the Layer 2 chain Taiko at its launch, resulting in a growth multiple of 825 times. Excluding Taiko, the average growth of other Layer 2 chains this year was 294.69%.

Among Layer 1 chains, the highest TVL growth was seen in Hyperliquid, TON, and Aptos, all exceeding 10 times, with Hyperliquid's TVL increasing by 4407% since its launch. In Layer 2, Taiko and Base were the kings of growth this year, with Taiko's TVL increasing by 82500% from its launch to the end of the year, while Base's TVL grew by approximately 721.51% throughout the year.

In addition to growth, some public chains did not see significant increases after a year and even experienced declines. zkSync saw the most severe decline, with its TVL dropping by 41.25%, followed by Optimism (-16.69%), Fantom (-13.95%), Tron (-9.17%), and Polygon (-1.67%).

Half of Public Chains Experienced Declines in Daily Active Users, Solana with the Highest Daily Activity

In terms of network activity, Hyperliquid, Sui, and TON had the highest increases in daily active addresses in 2024, with increases of 13381.48%, 3350.55%, and 2409.43%, respectively. Besides these three public chains, Base, Aptos, and Solana also saw their daily active data increase by over 10 times throughout the year.

Surprisingly, among the 22 analyzed public chains, 9 chains experienced varying degrees of decline in daily active data this year. Among them, zkSync and StarkNet saw the most severe drop in daily active users, exceeding 90%. Additionally, Near, Blast, Polygon, Avalanche, Cardano, Optimism, and Tron all experienced varying degrees of decline compared to the beginning of the year.

At the beginning of the year, Tron had 2.2 million daily active addresses, ranking first among all public chains. After a year of changes, Solana became the public chain with the highest daily active addresses at 4 million, and in terms of peak daily active data, Solana also recorded the highest number of 8.8 million daily active users.

In terms of daily transaction volumes, Hyperliquid once again became the public chain with the largest growth, with transaction volumes increasing by approximately 248900% throughout the year. Taiko grew by 4471.43%, and Base's transaction volume increased by 1948.78%, all exceeding 10 times growth. The Avalanche (C-Chain) network saw the most severe decline in transaction volumes, dropping from 2.8 million transactions at the beginning of the year to 260,000, a decline of 90.71%. However, this decline was primarily due to an abnormal peak in transaction volumes on January 1, 2024. Excluding this anomaly, Avalanche's daily average transaction volume has remained stable at several hundred thousand transactions per day without significant fluctuations.

Additionally, zkSync's decline also reached 90%, and in comparison, zkSync's drop is quite noticeable, as the number of on-chain transactions rapidly decreased from millions to just over a hundred thousand per day after the airdrop ended.

Token Price Performance, Mixed Results, HYPE Takes the Lead

Some rejoice while others lament; in terms of token performance, half of the tokens rose while the other half fell throughout the year. Hyperliquid's token performed the best, with an increase of approximately 1272.30% over the year, peaking at 1648.00%. It became the only public chain token to exceed a 10-fold increase. However, it should be noted that Hyperliquid's token HYPE was only issued at the end of November, giving it a certain advantage in terms of growth compared to other public chains when calculated from the opening price. Nonetheless, several other public chain tokens were also issued this year, with many showing little increase, and some even declining.

Additionally, other public chains with good token performance include Sui, TON, Tron, and BNB Chain, all of which saw their token prices increase by over 100%. Solana had high market enthusiasm this year, but in fact, compared to January 1, 2024, its token SOL price only increased by 92.26%.

Compared to the beginning of the year, 10 public chains experienced varying degrees of decline in token prices. Excluding the two chains that have not issued tokens, Base and Linea, this proportion is exactly 50%. Among the declining tokens, StarkNet and Blast saw the largest declines, reaching 75% and 65%, respectively.

In terms of market capitalization, Ethereum still holds the top position among public chains, with a market cap of approximately $274.2 billion at the beginning of the year, rising to $409.4 billion by year-end, reflecting a growth of approximately 49.28% over the year. BNB's market cap consistently ranks second, with a growth slightly higher than SOL.

Ethereum's Stability, Solana's Full Throttle

In addition to horizontal comparisons, the development of the following public chains may need to be highlighted separately, described in one sentence as half fireworks, half tranquility.

Solana is an indispensable public chain in 2024. This year, Solana's data changes are remarkable, completely emerging from the shadow of FTX's collapse. It not only achieved significant breakthroughs in scale but even showed signs of competing with Ethereum. Over the past year, Solana has led the MEME trend, becoming the public chain with the most users due to the popularity of MEME.

At the beginning of the year, Solana's TVL ranked fourth, rising to second by year-end. Its daily active user count, which ranked eighth at the beginning of the year, became the highest among public chains by year-end.

Ethereum, as the elder brother of public chains, seems to have remained calm amidst the excitement of 2024. Many of its data points at year-end are not much different from those at the beginning of the year, with daily active users increasing by 9% and daily transaction volumes remaining nearly stable throughout the year. Only the TVL increased by 127%, and if we exclude the 49% increase in ETH price itself, this data does not seem to reflect significant real change. The stagnation of TVL in terms of currency value is also a reason for the lackluster performance of the token price.

The main reason for this change may stem from the diversion caused by Layer 2. For Ethereum, whether it can maintain this stable state in the new year or experience more fluctuations may require more innovative content to lead the way.

Sui and Hyperliquid, Competition Between Rising Stars and Supernovae?

Hyperliquid is undoubtedly the supernova of the public chain track this year, surprising the market with its performance, ranking first in almost all metrics of growth, such as daily active users, transaction volume growth, TVL growth (second place), and token price growth. However, some objective factors need to be considered regarding Hyperliquid's rapid rise: first, it has the shortest lifespan, being the youngest among the analyzed public chains. Second, while its growth rate is high, it still lags far behind public chains like Ethereum or Solana in terms of overall scale. Particularly in terms of active user numbers, Hyperliquid currently has only 286,500 total users, which is still less than Solana's daily active count at the beginning of the year. Other metrics, such as TVL, are around $1.7 billion, which is one-fifth of Solana's.

However, Hyperliquid is already close to Solana in terms of daily transaction volumes, ranking second. In terms of market capitalization, it lags behind several public chains that performed far worse this year. From this perspective, Hyperliquid still has enormous development potential in 2025, but such development may require stronger and sustained data support.

Sui is considered a major competitor to Solana in the future. From the data performance, Sui's network also performed quite well this year. Its TVL grew nearly 7 times, daily active users increased by 33.5 times, and transaction volumes peaked at over 300 million transactions in a single day. The price of its token is also among the highest increases, rising approximately 441.13% over the year, with the maximum increase exceeding 520.25%. In terms of growth levels, Sui's growth rate in 2024 has already surpassed Solana in some areas, but it now faces competition from projects like Hyperliquid and Aptos. Whether the Sui ecosystem can explode in 2025 may require finding some new breakout points.

In addition to the above representative public chains, other public chains in 2024 are also unwilling to remain stagnant. Some are transforming towards AI, represented by Near, while others, like Fantom, are upgrading their brand by launching new public chains as Sonic. Furthermore, in the Layer 2 track, 2024 has also been one of the hottest narratives for public chains. This year, several star Layer 2 chains issued airdrops but generally performed poorly on-chain. The best performer turned out to be Base, a Layer 2 without any token plans to date. Additionally, Taiko is another Layer 2 that, despite low market enthusiasm, performed well on-chain, although its overall data volume is still not large, and its future development remains to be observed.

Finally, comparing the relationships between various data points of these 22 public chains, it can be seen that the tokens with the highest increases in 2024 are also generally the public chains with the best growth in active users. From this perspective, perhaps the most important indicator for public chain development is still the users. For investors, how to judge the future expectations of a project may also be hidden in these simple data points.