Author: Stella L (stella@footprint.network)
Data Source: Footprint Analytics Blockchain Research Page
In November 2024, the blockchain industry finally welcomed a "bull market" period, with Bitcoin continuously setting new price highs and about to break through the important $100,000 mark, while its market capitalization surpassed that of major traditional assets like silver. Ethereum also experienced a strong recovery, and Altcoins saw significant rebounds. While Bitcoin's Layer 2 maintained strong growth, Ethereum's Layer 2 growth was relatively moderate, facing increasingly fierce competition.
The data in this report comes from the Blockchain Research Page of Footprint Analytics, which provides an easy-to-use dashboard containing the most critical statistics and metrics in the blockchain space, updated in real-time.
Market Overview
In November, the cryptocurrency market made history, with Bitcoin surging by an astonishing 39.0%, from $69,386 to $96,427. Ethereum closely followed, rising 47.8% from $2,511 to $3,711. Bitcoin's outstanding performance pushed its market capitalization above silver and Saudi Aramco, ranking it 7th among global assets as it approached the $100,000 mark on November 23.
The results of the U.S. election became a catalyst for the growth of the crypto market, potentially influencing comprehensive crypto legislation and regulatory oversight. The market reacted positively, particularly in the performance of memecoins, decentralized artificial intelligence (deAI) projects, and decentralized science (DeSci).
The broader financial markets also performed strongly. The financial sector led the stock market rally on expectations of U.S. tax reform and deregulation. However, international markets experienced some volatility, with the Chinese yuan under pressure due to concerns about potential U.S. tariff increases, while gold prices fell as election-related uncertainties subsided.
Layer 1
In November 2024, the total blockchain market capitalization surged 41.1% to $2.8 trillion. While Bitcoin maintained a dominant 68.1% share, down from 70.1% in October as Altcoins also performed strongly this month. Ethereum reversed its downward trend, with its market share reaching 15.9% (up 0.6% in absolute value), while Solana surpassed the BNB Chain to reach a 4.0% share.
Against the backdrop of Bitcoin's continued record-breaking price performance, Altcoins exhibited exceptional performance. Stellar (XLM) led the pack with a 466.8% surge, followed by Hedera (HBAR) with a 269.7% increase, Cardano (ADA) with 201.5%, and Polkadot (DOT) with 130.7%. The significant rise of Stellar likely reflects the market's growing attention to its cross-border remittance infrastructure and CBDC capabilities, which may have been influenced by the expected clarity of the regulatory framework after the U.S. election.
The DeFi sector's TVL grew 43.0% in November to $90.8 billion. Ethereum led the growth with a 61.6% increase, while Tron and Solana ranked second and third, respectively. Although the majority of the top 15 chains by TVL saw growth, Polygon declined by 5.9% due to capital outflows from Polymarket after the U.S. presidential election. The downward trend of TRON since October continued, attributed to the weakening momentum of Telegram games and meme activities.
Blockchains built on the Move technology stack maintained strong growth momentum. Sui reached new highs in token price and market capitalization, while also forming a strategic partnership with the renowned financial institution Franklin Templeton. Aptos drove on-chain activity growth through its Meme launch platform Emojicoin. Meanwhile, Movement is about to launch its mainnet, with its testnet data looking impressive: according to the Movement Explorer, it has over 6.6 million accounts and 153 million transactions.
Stablecoins remain a central focus in the industry. USDS, as the first major DeFi-native stablecoin, launched on Solana, while Ripple is reportedly about to receive NYDFS approval for RLUSD. As stablecoins' influence continues to grow, the industry is watching whether some companies will issue their own blockchains. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino tweeted that the company will remain neutral and not launch its own blockchain, responding to industry concerns.
Bitcoin Layer 2 & Sidechains
In November 2024, Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechains saw significant growth, with a total TVL of $2.4 billion, up 34.6% from October. The competition for Bitcoin liquidity among the major platforms has intensified.
Core strengthened its market leadership, with its TVL growing 55.7% to $890 million, expanding its market share to 37.4%. This growth was driven by the Fusion upgrade in November, which introduced dual staking and liquid Bitcoin staking (LstBTC), allowing users to earn higher yields while maintaining liquidity on Core's BTCfi platform.
Bitlayer maintained the second position with a TVL of $580 million, but its market share declined to 24.4%. BSquared continued to grow, increasing 53.1% month-over-month to a TVL of $260 million, rising to the third position, while Rootstock ranked fourth with a TVL of $240 million.
At the BTCfi project level, Pell Network with a TVL of $400 million has become the leader, followed by the strong performance of Avalon Finance (Bitlayer and Core) and DeSyn (Bitlayer) across multiple chains, each with a TVL of over $200 million.
Ethereum Layer2
In November 2024, the total TVL (standardized bridging part) of Ethereum Layer 2 solutions reached $27.5 billion, an increase of 2.0% from October, still lagging behind the growth rate of Bitcoin scaling solutions.
Arbitrum One maintained its leading position with a TVL of $11.3 billion, accounting for 41.0% of the market, while Base surpassed Optimism to take second place with a TVL of $5.1 billion, accounting for 18.6%, thanks to the surge in activity driven by the Clanker social meme deployment platform and the Virtuals Protocol AI agent creation and deployment platform based on Farcaster. Meanwhile, Optimism's market share fell to 17.3%.
Starknet TVL grew by 5.1%, surpassing Blast to rank fourth, while Blast continued to decline, down 14.5%. Starknet's growth was driven by the STRK staking launched on November 26 and CEO Eli Ben Sasson's promise to significantly improve performance in the next quarter. Meanwhile, World Chain performed well, with TVL growing 131.4% to $570 million.
In November, the Ethereum Foundation, under public pressure, strengthened its financial transparency by releasing its 2024 report, outlining its core values and funding strategy. Vitalik Buterin emphasized Ethereum's future development, including the implementation of DAS to enhance Layer 2 scalability, and infrastructure improvements to support a diverse range of applications from ENS to consumer payments.
Blockchain Gaming Altcoins
In November, the number of active blockchain games grew by 4.6% to 1,696, with BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum maintaining their market leadership in game distribution, with shares of 20.9%, 15.4%, and 13.4%, respectively.
The user engagement landscape has seen new changes, with opBNB, Ronin, and Nebula (SKALE) leading with average daily active users (DAU) of 1.8 million, 900,000, and 400,000, respectively. OpBNB's DAU grew by 46.1%, driven by SERAPH: In The Darkness and MEET48, as well as the migration of some games from BNB Chain to opBNB. Meanwhile, Ronin showed a strong recovery, driven by the launch of the new game Fableborne and the resurgence of Lumiterra.
Telegram-based games have shown mixed results. While the TON ecosystem faced challenges, with DAU declining 41.9% to 116,400, Sui bucked the trend, with DAU growing 23.1% to 233,300, mainly due to the success of BIRDS and its significant user retention metrics.
For more data insights, please refer to the report "November 2024 Blockchain Gaming Report: The Breakthrough Path of GameFi under the Bull Market".
Funding Situation
In November 2024, the blockchain industry recorded 12 funding events, totaling $79.8 million, a 23.3% decrease from October, the lowest monthly figure since August. Five of the events did not disclose the specific funding amount.
Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs) became the largest recipient of funding this month, announcing a $40 million seed round and a $250 million token purchase commitment. The company has pivoted from its initial positioning as a modular Altcoin provider to a crypto AI startup, developing a decentralized AI operating system (dAIOS) for building AI applications on-chain.
Several Layer 1 Altcoins received funding this month, including Cytonic, Pharos, Talus Network, EtraPay, and Datalayer. Notably, AvaCloud, a custodial Altcoin service provider built by Ava Labs, acquired EtraPay, gaining a team of renowned privacy technology experts and an innovative encrypted ERC (eERC) token standard.
The Layer 2 ecosystem continued to see active investment, with six projects receiving new rounds of funding, including the Bitcoin Layer 2 projects Bitfinity and Lnfi Network, the Ethereum Layer 2 projects Heurist and Corn, and other Layer 2 projects Akave and AgentLayer.
