Blockchain Industry Reaches New Heights: Public Chain Research Report November 2024

In November 2024, the blockchain industry welcomed a long-awaited bull market. Bitcoin's price continuously set new historical highs, approaching the significant threshold of $100,000, with a market capitalization exceeding that of silver and other major traditional assets. Ethereum also achieved a strong recovery, and the altcoin market saw a notable rebound as well. While Bitcoin Layer 2 maintained strong growth, Ethereum Layer 2 faced increasingly fierce competition, resulting in relatively moderate growth.

Market Overview

In November, the cryptocurrency market achieved a historic breakthrough, with Bitcoin experiencing an astonishing increase, soaring from $69,386 to $96,427, a rise of 39.0%. Ethereum closely followed with a rise of 47.8%, climbing from $2,511 to $3,711. Bitcoin's outstanding performance allowed its market capitalization to surpass that of silver and Saudi Aramco, firmly securing the seventh position among global assets after approaching the $100,000 mark on November 23.

The results of the US election have become a catalyst for growth in the crypto market and may impact comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation and regulatory oversight. The market has reacted positively to this, particularly reflected in the performance of popular sectors such as memecoins, decentralized artificial intelligence (deAI) projects, and decentralized science (DeSci).

The broader financial markets also performed strongly. The financial sector led the stock market under expectations of U.S. tax reform and deregulation. However, there was some volatility in international markets, with the Renminbi under pressure amid concerns over potential U.S. tariffs, while gold prices fell as election-related uncertainties eased.

Layer 1

In November 2024, the total market value of Blockchain surged by 41.1% to $2.8 trillion. Although Bitcoin maintained its dominance with a share of 68.1%, it decreased from 70.1% in October as altcoins performed strongly this month. Ethereum reversed its downward trend, reaching a market share of 15.9% (an absolute increase of 0.6%), while Solana surpassed BNB chain with a share of 4.0%.

Against the backdrop of Bitcoin continuously setting price records, altcoins have demonstrated outstanding performance. Stellar (XLM) leads with a 466.8% increase, followed by Hedera (HBAR) with a 269.7% rise, Cardano (ADA) with a 201.5% increase, and Polkadot (DOT) with a 130.7% rise. Notably, Stellar's surge significantly reflects the market's increasing attention to its cross-border remittance infrastructure and CBDC capabilities, which may be influenced by expectations of clearer regulatory frameworks following the U.S. elections.

The TVL in the DeFi sector grew by 43.0% to $90.8 billion in November. Ethereum led the growth with an increase of 61.6%, while Tron and Solana ranked second and third respectively. Although most of the top 15 chains by TVL saw growth, Polygon dropped by 5.9% due to capital outflows from a prediction market platform after the U.S. presidential election. The downward trend of TON since October continues, driven by weakening momentum in games and meme activities on a certain instant messaging platform.

The Move technology stack blockchain continues to maintain strong development momentum. Sui has reached new highs in token price and market capitalization, while establishing strategic partnerships with well-known financial institutions. Aptos is driving on-chain activity growth through its Meme launch platform. Meanwhile, Movement is about to launch its mainnet, with impressive testnet data: according to Movement Explorer, there are already over 6.6 million accounts and 153 million transactions.

Stablecoins remain one of the central sectors on the stage. USDS, as the first major DeFi native stablecoin, has launched on Solana, and reports indicate that Ripple is about to receive approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for RLUSD. As the influence of stablecoins continues to grow, the industry is paying attention to whether some companies will issue their own blockchains. The CEO of a stablecoin issuing company tweeted that his company will remain neutral and will not launch its own blockchain, responding to industry concerns.

Bitcoin Layer 2 and Sidechains

In November 2024, Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechains achieved significant growth, with a total TVL reaching 2.4 billion USD, an increase of 34.6% compared to October. Competition among major platforms for Bitcoin liquidity intensified.

Core has strengthened its market leadership position, with TVL growing by 55.7% to $890 million, and market share expanding to 37.4%. This growth is attributed to the Fusion upgrade in November, which introduced dual staking and liquidity Bitcoin staking (LstBTC), allowing users to earn higher yields while maintaining liquidity on Core's BTCfi platform.

Bitlayer maintains the second position with a TVL of $580 million, but its market share has dropped to 24.4%. BSquared continues to grow, with a monthly increase of 53.1% to a TVL of $260 million, rising to third place, while Rootstock ranks fourth with a TVL of $240 million.

At the BTCfi project level, Pell Network has become a leader with a TVL of $400 million, followed by Avalon Finance (Bitlayer and Core) and DeSyn (Bitlayer) with strong performances across multiple chains, each having over $200 million in TVL.

Ethereum Layer 2

In November 2024, the total TVL (in the standardized bridging part) of Ethereum Layer 2 solutions reached $27.5 billion, a 2.0% increase compared to October, continuing to lag behind the growth rate of Bitcoin scaling solutions.

Arbitrum One maintains its leadership position with a TVL of $11.3 billion and a market share of 41.0%, while Base surpasses Optimism to seize the second position with a TVL of $5.1 billion and a share of 18.6%, thanks to the surge in activity brought by the Farcaster-based social meme deployment platform Clanker and the AI agent creation and deployment platform Virtuals Protocol. Meanwhile, Optimism's market share has dropped to 17.3%.

Starknet TVL increased by 5.1%, surpassing Blast to rank fourth, while Blast continued to decline, dropping by 14.5%. The growth of Starknet is attributed to the launch of STRK staking on November 26 and the CEO's commitment to significantly enhance performance in the next quarter. Meanwhile, World Chain performed excellently, with TVL increasing by 131.4% to 570 million USD.

In November, the Ethereum Foundation strengthened financial transparency by releasing the 2024 report, while outlining core values and funding strategies. A well-known figure emphasized the future development of Ethereum, including the implementation of DAS to enhance Layer 2 scalability, as well as infrastructure improvements to support diverse applications ranging from ENS to consumer payments.

Blockchain Game Public Chain

In November, the number of active blockchain games increased by 4.6% to 1,696, with BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum maintaining market leadership in game distribution, holding shares of 20.9%, 15.4%, and 13.4%, respectively.

User engagement patterns have undergone new changes, with opBNB, Ronin, and Nebula (SKALE) leading with an average daily active users (DAU) of 1.8 million, 900,000, and 400,000 respectively. The DAU of opBNB grew by 46.1%, thanks to the promotion of SERAPH: In The Darkness and MEET48, as well as the migration of some games from the BNB chain to opBNB. Meanwhile, Ronin has shown strong recovery through the launch of the new game Fableborne and the resurgence of Lumiterra.

The games based on a certain instant messaging platform have shown mixed results. Although the TON ecosystem is facing challenges with a 41.9% decrease in DAU to 116,400, Sui has risen against the trend with a 23.1% increase in DAU to 233,300, mainly thanks to the success of BIRDS and significant user retention metrics.

Financing Situation

In November 2024, the blockchain sector recorded 12 financing events, with a total amount of $79.8 million, a decrease of 23.3% compared to October, marking the lowest monthly figure since August. Among these, five events did not disclose specific financing amounts.

Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs) has become the largest recipient of funding this month, announcing a $40 million seed round and a $250 million token purchase commitment. The company has shifted its positioning from an initial modular Blockchain provider to a crypto AI startup, developing a decentralized AI operating system (dAIOS) for building AI applications on-chain.

Several Layer 1 Blockchains secured funding this month, including Cytonic, Pharos, Talus Network, EtraPay, and Datalayer. Notably, AvaCloud, a custody Blockchain service provider built by Ava Labs, acquired EtraPay, gaining a team of renowned privacy technology experts and the innovative encrypted token standard Encrypted ERC (eERC).

The Layer 2 ecosystem continues to maintain investment activity, with six projects receiving a new round of financing, including Bitcoin Layer 2's Bitfinity and Lnfi Network, Ethereum Layer 2's Heurist and Corn, as well as other Layer 2 projects Akave and AgentLayer.