Author: Stella L (stella@footprint.network)
Data source: Footprint Analytics Public Chain Research Page
Exactly 16 years after Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31, 2008, Bitcoin has once again demonstrated its revolutionary impact on the financial world. In October 2024, driven by strong institutional investment, Bitcoin approached its all-time high, while the entire blockchain ecosystem continued to develop rapidly. This month highlighted a clear market differentiation, with Bitcoin leading the market with a 15.9% increase, while the rise of Ethereum was more moderate. Meanwhile, the Layer 2 solutions of the two major networks continued to improve and expand. At the same time, the emerging mainnet Sui is gaining momentum and is about to enter the top ten public chains.
The data in this report comes from the Public Chain Research Page of Footprint Analytics, which provides an easy-to-use dashboard containing the most critical statistics and metrics in the public chain field, updated in real-time.
Market Overview
The market in October 2024 showed significant differentiation, with Bitcoin leading the rally, while other cryptocurrencies saw relatively moderate gains. Bitcoin performed exceptionally well, rising from $60,764 to $70,398, a 15.9% increase, and reaching a recent high of $72,751 on October 29, close to its all-time high in March. In comparison, Ethereum had a more muted performance, with a monthly gain of 2.7%, closing at $2,519.
Data source: Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Trends
Several macroeconomic factors influenced the market this month. Fluctuations in the global currency market, particularly the strengthening of the US dollar against major currencies, including the Chinese yuan, impacted the flow of capital in the cryptocurrency market. This change occurred against a backdrop of rising bond yields and increasing gold prices, reflecting a shift in global market risk appetite.
Political factors are increasingly influencing market sentiment, with the upcoming US presidential election becoming an important market driver. Investors are positioning themselves in anticipation of potential policy changes, driving an acceleration in Bitcoin's gains, as the market closely monitors the impact of different election outcomes on digital asset regulation and broader financial policies.
Institutional participation remains a crucial driving force in the market, as evidenced by the significant inflows of capital into Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs). This trend highlights the growing recognition of digital assets as a strategic investment tool among institutional investors, although they are taking a more cautious approach in their investment positioning.
Regulatory dynamics continue to shape the market landscape. The FBI's "phishing enforcement" investigation into the NexFundAI token was a significant milestone, leading to market manipulation charges against three cryptocurrency companies and 15 individuals. Meanwhile, Crypto.com's legal dispute with the SEC underscores the ongoing tension between industry participants and regulators.
Layer 1
In October 2024, the total market capitalization of blockchain cryptocurrencies grew by 6.7% to $2.0 trillion, with Bitcoin's market dominance increasing from 67.3% in September to 70.1%. At the same time, Ethereum's share continued to decline, from 16.8% to 15.3%, while the shares of BNB Chain and Solana remained relatively stable at 4.2% and 4.0%, respectively.
Data source: Public Chain Token Market Capitalization
The market growth was primarily driven by the strong performance of mature tokens, with Bitcoin leading the rally, and Bitcoin Cash (12.9%) and Litecoin (9.5%) also seeing significant gains. Solana maintained its position as one of the best-performing Altcoins, rising 17.6%. The emerging blockchain Sui continued its upward momentum, with a gain of 11.5%.
Data source: Public Chain Token Prices and Market Capitalization
Sui's market capitalization ranking rose to 11th place. By capitalizing on meme coin trends and Telegram-based gaming opportunities, Sui has also significantly expanded its DeFi ecosystem. The launch of native USDC by Circle on Sui in October marked another milestone in its development. However, this growth was not without controversy - in October, allegations of a "$400 million token dump by Sui insiders" were raised, although denied by the Sui Foundation, sparking community discussions.
The DeFi sector faced headwinds in October, with the total TVL declining by 6.8% to $63.5 billion. While the Bitcoin ecosystem performed strongly, the DeFi segment of the Ethereum ecosystem underperformed. Notably, Polygon was an exception, with its TVL growing by 30.3%, primarily due to increased activity driven by the approaching US presidential election, which boosted Polymarket to record levels.
Data source: Public Chain TVL
Stablecoins continue to demonstrate their critical role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Bitwise Research's Q3 2024 Crypto Market Review shows that global stablecoin trading volume exceeded $5.1 trillion in the first half of 2024, approaching Visa's $6.5 trillion in transaction volume. Tether's profitability surpassing BlackRock highlights the financial impact of this sector, intensifying the competition among public chains to host stablecoins.
Bitcoin Layer 2 & Sidechains
In October 2024, Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechains continued to experience strong growth, with a total TVL reaching $1.8 billion, an increase of 22.2% from September.
Core maintained its industry-leading position, with a TVL growth of 29.8% to $570 million, accounting for a 32.4% market share. Bitlayer consolidated its position, with a TVL growth of 36.1% to $530 million, capturing a 29.9% market share. Rootstock ranked third with a TVL of $180 million and a 10.1% market share, while BSquared emerged as a rising star, reaching a TVL of $170 million, a monthly growth of 54.4%, surpassing Merlin to claim the fourth spot.
Data source: Bitcoin Ecosystem Chain TVL
October witnessed a major technical breakthrough in the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem. BEVM launched the innovative "Super Bitcoin" framework, proposing a comprehensive solution to expand Bitcoin's functionality while maintaining the security of the Bitcoin base.
The framework proposes a five-layer architecture based on the Bitcoin network, leveraging its proven PoW consensus to ensure security. Building upwards, it integrates Lightning Network technology for efficient communication, Taproot consensus for standardization, and a multi-chain fusion layer supporting various virtual machines. This architecture ultimately forms the application layer, enabling developers to build DApps while leveraging Bitcoin's security.
In a key initiative connecting the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems, the BOB network announced integration with Optimism's "Superchain". As a self-described "hybrid layer-2" solution, BOB aims to create a seamless connection between Bitcoin and Ethereum, placing Bitcoin at the center of the DeFi realm.
Cross-chain functionality further advanced with the integration of Cardano and BitcoinOS (BOS). This collaboration aims to provide Cardano users with direct, trustless access to Bitcoin liquidity.
Additionally, BTCFi continued its impressive growth, particularly with Babylon's Bitcoin staking program Cap-2. The program demonstrated significant efficiency, attracting 23,000 BTC while generating only 1.56 BTC in fees, showcasing the market's strong demand for Bitcoin-based financial products.
Ethereum Layer 2
In October 2024, Ethereum Layer 2 solutions saw moderate growth, with the total TVL of standardized bridges reaching $19.8 billion, a 1.2% increase from September, significantly lagging behind the growth rate of Bitcoin scaling solutions. The competitive landscape continued to evolve, with established leaders maintaining dominance but experiencing a decline in market share, while new entrants made decent progress.
Market leaders Arbitrum One and Optimism maintained their positions with 45.3% and 17.8% market share, respectively, despite both experiencing slight declines. Base saw significant growth, expanding its market share from 8.1% to 13.4%, with a TVL increase of 28.5%. This growth was primarily driven by the Coinbase smart wallet, which simplified dApp interactions and attracted substantial inflows in lending, derivatives, and DEX protocols. Base's native DEX Aerodrome performed excellently in this expansion.
Data source: Ethereum Layer 2 Overview - September 2024 (Rollups)
Several new entrants made significant impacts. Fuel Ignition and World Chain saw substantial TVL growth following their mainnet launches, while Taiko's TVL grew by 20.8% driven by the success of Panko Finance and Avalon Finance.
However, Scroll experienced a 39.6% TVL decline after its airdrop. Its airdrop activity faced community controversy over the distribution plan, and like previous cases with zkSync and Starknet, post-airdrop activity declined significantly, with its token price dropping over 50% from the issuance price.
Beyond market metrics, the industry also increased its focus on addressing fundamental ecosystem challenges, particularly in user experience and interoperability.
Vitalik Buterin actively engaged in addressing community concerns, publishing a series of comprehensive articles discussing the future direction of Ethereum. He shared multiple posts on social media, emphasizing that cross-Layer 2 interoperability is a key development priority. His submitted roadmap outlines improvements aimed at unifying the Ethereum ecosystem through standardized chain-specific addresses, a unified payment request system, and cross-Layer 2 integrated key management wallets. These enhancements seek to simplify cross-chain asset transfers while reducing gas fees for cross-Layer 2 transactions.
Despite ongoing challenges, the Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem continued to attract significant projects and developments. October witnessed several notable mainnet launches. World Network (formerly Worldcoin) went live, bringing its privacy-focused identity solution to the mainnet. Yuga Labs' ApeChain launched, leveraging Ethereum's security to develop NFT applications, while Eclipse and Fuel Ignition completed mainnet deployments, adding new scaling solutions to the ecosystem.
Another important development came from Uniswap Labs, which announced plans for Unichain, a new Layer 2 network built on the Optimism OP Stack. Given Uniswap's dominant position in DeFi, this announcement generated significant industry discussion. Following the launches of major players like Coinbase's Base and Sony's Soniem, the Unichain testnet launch signals a potential shift in the Layer 2 competitive dynamics, with future competition in liquidity and gas fees likely to intensify.
Unichain
Blockchain Gaming Chains
In October 2024, the blockchain gaming sector had 1,606 active games, with BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum dominating the game distribution. OpBNB led user engagement with an average of 1.2 million daily active users (DAU), followed by Ronin (886,000 DAU) and Matchain (548,000 DAU).
Data source: Active Blockchain Games by Chain
Matchain achieved a significant breakthrough in October, with its Telegram-based game surging from 78 average daily DAU in September to 548,000 DAU. The chain reached a peak of 3.3 million users on October 12th, stabilizing at around 615,000 users by the end of the month, demonstrating the potential and volatility of Telegram-based user acquisition strategies.
Sui and Core also showed strong growth, with DAU increasing by 105.1% to 190,000 and 75.7% to 109,000, respectively, both leveraging Telegram-based initiatives. Meanwhile, TON's DAU declined by 27.7% to 195,000, despite its pioneering Telegram-based strategy inspiring the adoption of similar approaches by chains like Sei, Ancient8, and Viction, user retention remains a common challenge across the industry.
For more data insights, please refer to the report "Blockchain Gaming Report October 2024: Latest Trends in Active Users and On-Chain Gaming Ecosystems".
Funding Situation
In October 2024, the blockchain industry recorded 12 funding events, totaling $104 million, a 40.1% decrease from the $174 million in September. Three of the events did not disclose the specific funding amounts.
Public Chain Financing Event in October 2024 (Data Source: crypto-fundraising.info)
Nillion, a blockchain project focused on privacy, became the largest recipient of financing in October, raising $25 million in a funding round led by Hack VC. The project's innovative "blind computing" method allows data processing without exposing the content, enabling applications to collaborate while maintaining data privacy. This groundbreaking technology positions Nillion at the intersection of privacy protection and decentralized computing, meeting the growing demand for secure data processing in Web3 applications.
TON continued its financing momentum after receiving $30 million in investment from Bitget and Foresight Ventures in September. In October, TON received funding support from Gate.io.
Layer 2 solutions continue to attract investor attention, spanning the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems. The Bitcoin Layer 2 platforms Bitlayer and B² Network successfully completed new funding rounds, while the Ethereum Layer 2 space saw capital flow into innovative projects, including Ithaca, Semantic Layer, Sophon, and LAYER.
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The content of this article is for industry research and exchange purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. The market has risks, and investments require caution.
About Footprint Analytics
Footprint Analytics is a comprehensive blockchain data analysis platform that simplifies complex analysis for enterprises and projects in the Web3 ecosystem. It provides customized solutions, eliminating the need for extensive expertise and infrastructure maintenance. The platform offers tools aimed at helping establish and manage long-term community growth, emphasizing sustainable growth and user loyalty. By combining powerful analytics tools and community management tools, Footprint Analytics enables projects to effectively leverage blockchain data for decision-making and growth strategies, covering areas such as GameFi, Non-Fungible Tokens, and Decentralized Finance.
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