Author: David C, Bankless; Translated by: Deng Tong, Jinse Finance
Few projects have received as much criticism and controversy as this cycle of Blast.
Soon after launching, depositors began complaining on Twitter about the opportunity cost of locking up ETH for airdrops. Then, the Munchables NFT project was hacked less than a month after launching, causing the network to face existential crisis due to a $64 million hack (although the funds were later returned). Despite this, Blast has continued to grow, attracting a number of high-quality projects, promoting the network as an exciting and experimental DeFi hub for crypto natives.
May is the month when Blast will be conducting its airdrop, and it turns out to be very important to check the ecosystem to understand if the network is strong enough, which will determine whether the project will continue to grow after the airdrop or fade into obscurity.
Blast Status
Analyzing the current state of the network shows that Blast has impressive resilience and scalability.
While not exponentially growing, its TVL grew from an initial $2.11 billion to $3 billion both before and after the Munchables hack. It has stabilized at $2.5 billion during the market’s recent sell-off, though gains of around 59% over the past month put it comfortably in the top 10 in terms of size and in the top 5 in terms of Rollups.
However, analyzing TVL may not provide the best information about actual activity like TPS, which reached 9.4 after launch but has now stabilized to 5 TPS. This puts Blast far behind chains such as Base, Degen Chain, and Arbitrum. However, this can be explained by the fact that most of the activity on Blast comes from locking assets to maximize returns, rather than performing frequent transactions.
In contrast, while activity numbers may be lower, many projects in the Blast ecosystem have experienced significant growth over the past month. In pursuit of its goal to become the DeFi degen hub, Blast has built a solid foundation equipped with all the verticals necessary to achieve this goal.
Juice Finance offers lending/borrowing facilities with enhanced functionality to maximize yield and points. Thruster provides the ecosystem with the deep token liquidity needed for trading, enhanced by high-yield projects like Hyperlock Finance built on top of it. Particle Trade’s growth demonstrates demand for its “Uniswap leverage”, while Renzo, one of the largest LRT protocols, injects liquidity into the network.
Together, these projects lay the foundation for Blast’s efforts to become a strong DeFi hub.
Potential catalyst
Blast has become well-versed in the intricacies of cryptocurrency and is inclined to explore new forms of it.
New projects can use this community to guide their protocol design. It is particularly suitable for SocialFi projects, those looking to build at the intersection of social networking and DeFi, some of which have recently emerged on Blast.
Fantasy Top, a competition where users “select” teams of their favorite crypto personalities to compete in a tournament based on rankings such as Twitter engagement, is set to launch mainnet soon after the airdrop announcement.
EarlyFans, a SocialFi platform that further tokenizes the relationship between content creators and their audiences through speculative upside, has just launched its Beta ahead of its upcoming airdrop.
DistrictOne caters to communities and influencers looking to expand and leverage their influence by making money through money games featuring sharing, investing, and jackpots.
Overall, Blast’s intentional alignment with crypto-native and degen culture not only solidifies its position in the DeFi space, but also lays the foundation for expansion into trends like SocialFi, potentially gaining greater market traction by further intertwining DeFi with culture.
Future Outlook
With the arrival of the airdrop, May holds a special meaning for Blast.
The network’s activity, especially in the DeFi space, has somewhat turned expectations on their head. Remember, there are not only Points, but also Gold — a resource that includes 50% of the airdrop, allocated to Dapps to incentivize and reward the community as they see fit.
As Blast approaches its pivotal May airdrop, the network is at an important crossroads. As seen in its recovery from the Munchables hack and stable TVL, Blast has a resilient foundation and a chance to become an integral DeFi hub. The success of its airdrop will be critical in determining whether Blast solidifies its position as a pioneer network or becomes just another L2 network.
