In 2024, the public chain industry completed a key transformation from technological competition to practical application, with the influx of institutional capital and innovative applications driving the industry scale to surpass $2.8 trillion.

Author: Footprint Analytics

Data Source: Footprint Analytics Public Chain Research Dashboard

2024 marks an important watershed for the public chain industry, shifting the focus from technological competition to practical application. In this year, the market capitalization of public chains grew by 105.3% to reach $2.8 trillion, Bitcoin's price surpassed $100,000, institutional adoption was achieved through ETFs, Ethereum's Layer 2 networks expanded to over 200 chains, and Bitcoin's Layer 2 TVL grew by 1,277.6%, all demonstrating the industry's transition from technological experimentation to practical real-world applications. The public chain industry is gradually shifting from a technology-driven development model to one driven by application demand.

Note: Unless otherwise specified, all data in this report is as of December 20, 2024.

1. Market Dynamics: Growth and Transformation

In 2024, the public chain industry achieved unprecedented growth, with multiple key indicators showing significant expansion.

The total market capitalization of public chains grew by 105.3% to reach $2.8 trillion. Bitcoin's dominance rose to 69.8%, while Ethereum's share fell from 20.4% to 15.2%. The shares of BNB Chain and Solana remained stable at 3.5% and 3.3%, respectively, with other platforms accounting for 8.1%.

The DeFi sector also showed strong growth in 2024, with the total value locked (TVL) reaching $102.8 billion by year-end, a year-on-year increase of 88.6%. Among the top 10 public chains by TVL, Bitcoin and TON saw the most significant increases, both exceeding 2,000%. Aptos, Sui, and Solana also performed well, growing by 754.4%, 677.1%, and 321.3%, respectively. However, Tron and Avalanche both experienced declines in TVL.

The Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem experienced significant centralization in 2024. Arbitrum maintained its leading position with a TVL of $10.6 billion and a market share of 41.1%, down from 50.8% in 2023. Base emerged as the dark horse of the year, jumping to second place with a TVL of $5.8 billion (22.5% share), while Optimism ranked third with a TVL of $4 billion (15.8%). These three platforms together accounted for 79.1% of Ethereum's L2 DeFi TVL, while previous competitors like Blast, zkSync, and Starknet saw declines in market share.

Meanwhile, the ecosystem continued to expand, with 50 Rollups and 70 Validium & Optimium currently operating on the mainnet, along with approximately 90 upcoming chains, bringing the total number of Ethereum L2s to over 200.

The Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechain ecosystem experienced explosive growth, with total locked value reaching $2.6 billion, a significant increase of 1,277.6% compared to 2023. Core led with a TVL of $790 million (30.3% market share), followed by Bitlayer ($500 million, 19.4% share) and BSquared ($330 million, 12.7% share). This growth was not only reflected in TVL but also in the number of active chains, which more than doubled over the year, now totaling nearly 20 chains.

2. Competitive Landscape: Leaders and Challengers

In 2024, the competitive landscape of the public chain ecosystem underwent significant changes, primarily characterized by Bitcoin's strengthened dominance, Solana's resurgence, and the rise of emerging challengers.

1) Bitcoin: From Store of Value to Financial Infrastructure

Bitcoin achieved remarkable growth in 2024, with its price rising by 129.2% and market capitalization increasing by 131.7%. This growth was driven by institutional adoption of spot ETFs, the halving event in April, and positive sentiment following the U.S. elections. In addition to surpassing the $100,000 price milestone, there were two key developments in the Bitcoin ecosystem:

Institutional Adoption Boost: The successful launch of spot ETFs in January fundamentally changed the institutional access landscape, with BlackRock's product quickly reaching $20 billion in scale. Bitcoin surpassed silver and Saudi Aramco to become the seventh-largest asset globally, marking a shift from a speculative asset to a recognized store of value.

Rise of BTCfi: The Bitcoin ecosystem expanded beyond price growth through innovative financial products. Babylon's Bitcoin staking project, Solv Protocol's cross-chain solutions, and Core's Fusion upgrade all showcased an increasingly mature ecosystem. Cross-chain functionality made progress through integrations with the BOB network and Optimism, as well as the BEVM's "Super Bitcoin" framework, although standardization still faces challenges.

2) Ethereum: Layer 2 Drives Ecosystem Evolution

2024 was a pivotal year for Ethereum's transformation into a Layer 2-centric ecosystem. Despite a price increase of 55.8% to $3,744, Ethereum faced complex challenges in repositioning its role and maintaining relevance amid the growth of Layer 2 adoption. The successful launch of spot ETFs in July garnered some institutional recognition, but Ethereum's price performance lagged significantly behind Bitcoin.

The Ethereum mainnet underwent significant changes with the "Cancun Upgrade," successfully reducing Layer 2 transaction costs and enhancing scalability. However, the migration of activity to Layer 2 led to a decline in Ethereum's own fee revenue, sparking discussions about Ethereum's long-term sustainability. The Ethereum Foundation responded with several initiatives, including the implementation of Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844), the development of cross-L2 communication standards, and strengthening security requirements for Layer 2 solutions.

The Layer 2 ecosystem exhibited significant growth and integration throughout the year. Notable newcomers enriched the ecosystem, including World Chain, Uniswap's Unichain, and Sony's Soneium. This evolution highlighted Ethereum's transition from a pure execution layer to a diversified Layer 2 ecosystem providing settlement and security. While questions remain about revenue models and competitive dynamics, Ethereum's continued development in developer activity and innovation in scaling solutions demonstrated its adaptability.

3) Solana: The Third Giant

2024 witnessed a strong comeback for Solana, with its price rising by 70.8% and market capitalization increasing by 90.9%, reaching a historic high of over $260 in November. This revival began with the January Jupiter airdrop, leading to unprecedented activity in the Solana ecosystem. Solana established itself as a hub for retail trading, nurturing a vibrant meme and DeFi community. Beyond meme culture, Solana made strides in various areas: re-staking protocols, modular Layer 2 solutions, and stablecoin innovations. The ecosystem further extended its influence through the expansion of SVM chains like Eclipse, Soon, Atlas, and Sonic.

4) The Rise of Emerging Forces: TON, Sui, and Base

1) TON: Social Integration Drives Platform Growth

The Open Network (TON) exhibited significant growth in 2024, with Toncoin's price rising by 149.6% and market capitalization increasing by 84.3%. TON's success primarily stemmed from its deep integration with Telegram, effectively bridging traditional social networks and blockchain technology. The platform simplified the crypto experience through Telegram wallet features and blockchain integration, providing millions of users with easy access to gaming, meme, and DeFi applications, establishing a model for large-scale adoption.

2) Sui: From Move Language Pioneer to Ecosystem Leader

Sui performed impressively, with its token price soaring by 461.6% and market capitalization increasing by 1,363.8%. This success reflects the market's confidence in the development of Move language technology and its ecosystem. Sui focuses on DeFi and gaming sectors, including Telegram game integration and the innovative development of the SuiPlay0X1 gaming console, showcasing its comprehensive layout for ecosystem growth. The platform's emphasis on user experience and protocol development has created positive network effects, attracting joint participation from developers and users.

3) Base: Institutional Background Drives Rapid Growth

Base's significant growth is driven by several key factors. Coinbase has significantly lowered the entry barrier for mainstream users through its user-friendly smart wallet. The platform has gained substantial momentum from successful social applications like friend.tech and Clanker, while the popularity of memecoins has further boosted activity on the Base chain. The implementation of the "Cancun Upgrade" has significantly reduced transaction fees, continuously enhancing Base's appeal to developers and users.

4. Major Trends in the Public Chain Industry in 2024

1) New Chains Emerging Continuously

In 2024, project teams have been launching their own public chains. DeFi giant Uniswap announced Unichain; gaming platform Treasure DAO developed a ZK-based Layer 2; the NFT sector saw Pudgy Penguins launch Abstract; and Web3 platform Galxe introduced Gravity. Moreover, the entry of innovative new chains like Monad, Berachain, and HyperLiquid reflects the public chain industry's shift towards specialized blockchain infrastructure.

2) Institutional Adoption: From Exploration to Strategic Integration

A. Transformation of Institutional Participation

2024 marks a decisive shift in institutional adoption from experimental blockchain initiatives to strategic implementations. Financial institutions are leading this transformation, with BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF quickly reaching $20 billion in scale, and PayPal expanding PYUSD to Solana. Tech giants are demonstrating deeper participation through innovative means: Sony launched the Soneium chain for entertainment applications, while Google Cloud expanded its Web3 portal services. Infrastructure development is particularly noteworthy, with Circle launching native USDC on Sui and Visa integrating Solana for settlements.

B. Change in Institutional Investment Paradigms

The public chain sector exhibited a strong recovery in 2024, with 174 financing events raising a total of $1.7 billion, a 137.1% increase from the previous year. Notably, institutional investment strategies have shifted from pure infrastructure to application-oriented innovations. Early investment events accounted for 21.4% of total financing events, while Series A and B rounds made up 31.8%, reflecting the ecosystem's increasing maturity.

The investment philosophy of venture capital has undergone a significant evolution, prioritizing user-facing applications over traditional infrastructure development. This is evident in the substantial investments in consumer-oriented projects: Monad raised $225 million to optimize user experience, while Celestia and Berachain each secured $100 million for application-focused infrastructure.

3) From Technological Competition to Application Innovation

The public chain industry experienced a fundamental shift in 2024, moving from a technology-driven to an application-driven strategy. This shift challenges the previously dominant industry mindset of "build it and they will come." Despite significant improvements in technological capabilities, the increased network capacity has not directly translated into corresponding user growth. For instance, although "hardware" is limited, the Ethereum base layer has a higher "users per second" (UOPS) than most Layer 2s, highlighting the complex relationship between technological capability and actual adoption.

This reality has prompted a strategic shift within the ecosystem. Blockchain platforms are increasingly focusing on identifying specific user needs and building targeted solutions, rather than pursuing pure technological advancement. This "find the user and then build" approach is reflected in several successful initiatives. Social finance integration has proven to be particularly effective, with TON's Telegram integration and Base's friend.tech demonstrating how familiar social platforms can drive blockchain adoption. By simplifying user experience through account abstraction and familiar authentication methods, the entry barrier for mainstream users has been significantly lowered.

The evolution of meme culture in the blockchain space further illustrates this shift towards application-oriented development. Initially purely speculative activities have transformed into effective user acquisition channels, especially on platforms like Solana and Base. These networks have successfully leveraged meme-related initiatives to drive ecosystem growth while establishing sustainable community engagement. The success of these user-centric approaches indicates that sustainable growth in the blockchain space increasingly relies on understanding and serving user needs, rather than merely advancing technological capabilities.

5. Outlook for 2025

As the blockchain industry shifts from technological experimentation to practical implementation, 2025 is expected to be a significant year of transformation.

1) Regulatory Clarity

The regulatory environment shows significant promise for improvement, particularly in the United States. A clearer regulatory framework is expected to benefit the entire industry, especially with progress in stablecoin legislation. This regulatory clarity will promote institutional adoption of blockchain through an increase in regulated products and services, while fostering competition in crypto regulation across jurisdictions.

2) Specialization of Public Chains

The specialization of public chains is becoming a dominant trend, shifting from general Layer 1 competition to purpose-driven architectures. Supported by cross-chain infrastructure, application-specific chains and optimized execution environments will see substantial growth. The "Rollup as a Service" (RaaS) sector is expected to expand, providing enterprises and project teams with more convenient customized blockchain solutions.

3) Technological Innovation and AI Integration

In 2025, technological innovation will shift from pure breakthroughs to application-oriented infrastructure upgrades. The implementation of Proto-Danksharding will double Blob capacity, pushing Layer 2 scaling into a new phase; the development of chain abstraction technology will bring a more intuitive user experience; and the standardization of cross-chain communication will simplify interoperability.

At the infrastructure level, we expect to see more developments driven by actual demand. Modular blockchain technology stacks will mature, providing specialized solutions for data availability, settlement, and execution layers. Notably, the deep integration of AI technology with blockchain will reshape the infrastructure landscape: from improving user interfaces to enabling complex on-chain AI agents, from decentralized model training to supporting social finance integration, these innovations will provide support for more complex application scenarios while maintaining security and decentralization, laying a solid foundation for the next round of blockchain innovation.

6. Conclusion

The past year has proven that sustainable growth relies not only on technological capabilities but also on meaningful user adoption and practical utility. With increased regulatory clarity, advancements in technological infrastructure, and greater institutional participation, the foundation for meaningful large-scale adoption of blockchain technology is now in place. The focus is shifting from "what's technically possible" to "what's practically valuable," and this transition will define the next phase of growth for the industry in 2025.

This article is for industry research and communication purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. The market carries risks, and investments should be made cautiously.

Article link: https://www.hellobtc.com/kp/du/12/5611.html

Source: https://medium.com/@FootprintAnalyticsCN/2024-%E5%B9%B4-11-%E6%9C%88%E5%85%AC%E9%93%BE%E8%A1%8C%E4%B8%9A%E7%A0%94%E6%8A%A5-%E6%AF%94%E7%89%B9%E5%B8%81%E5%88%9B%E5%8E%86%E5%8F%B2%E6%96%B0%E9%AB%98%E5%BC%95%E9%A2%86%E5%B8%82%E5%9C%BA%E5%85%A8%E9%9D%A2%E4%B8%8A%E6%9D%A5

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。