Analysis Report of the Public Chain Industry in November 2024

In November, the blockchain industry experienced a strong upward trend. The price of Bitcoin continued to set new historical highs, approaching the important milestone of $100,000, with its market value surpassing major traditional assets like silver. At the same time, Ethereum also achieved a significant recovery, and altcoins generally rebounded sharply. While Bitcoin Layer 2 maintained strong growth, Ethereum Layer 2 faced more intense competition, with relatively moderate growth.

Market Overview

The cryptocurrency market reached an all-time high in November. Bitcoin surged from $69,386 to $96,427, an increase of 39.0%. Ethereum rose by 47.8%, climbing from $2,511 to $3,711. Bitcoin's strong performance pushed its market value beyond silver and Saudi Aramco, firmly establishing it as the seventh largest global asset after approaching the $100,000 mark on November 23.

The results of the US election have become a catalyst for growth in the cryptocurrency market, potentially affecting future cryptocurrency legislation and regulation. The market has reacted positively, 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 were certain fluctuations in international markets, with the renminbi under pressure due to concerns about potential increased tariffs from the U.S., 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 68.1% share, this was a decrease from 70.1% in October, as altcoins also 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, capturing a share of 4.0%.

Against the backdrop of Bitcoin continuously setting price records, altcoins have shown 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 growing attention to its cross-border remittance infrastructure and CBDC capabilities, which may be influenced by expectations of regulatory clarity 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 a 61.6% increase, while Tron and Solana ranked second and third, respectively. Although most of the top 15 chains by TVL saw growth, Polygon fell by 5.9% due to capital outflows from a certain prediction market platform after the U.S. presidential election. The downward trend of TON since October continues, driven by a slowdown in momentum from a certain instant messaging app game and meme activities.

The Move technology stack blockchain maintains a strong momentum of development. Sui has reached new highs in token price and market capitalization, while forming 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 key sectors at the center stage. USDS, as the first major DeFi native stablecoin, has launched on Solana, and reports indicate that a certain payment company is about to receive approval for its stablecoin from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). As the influence of stablecoins continues to grow, the industry is paying attention to whether some companies will launch 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 total TVL reaching $2.4 billion, an increase of 34.6% compared to October. Competition for Bitcoin liquidity among major platforms 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 returns 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 holds fourth place with a TVL of $240 million.

At the BTCfi project level, Pell Network has become the 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 a TVL of over $200 million.

Ethereum Layer 2

In November 2024, the total TVL (Standard Bridge section) of Ethereum Layer 2 solutions reached 27.5 billion USD, an increase of 2.0% compared to October, continuing to lag behind the growth rate of Bitcoin scaling solutions.

A certain Layer 2 platform maintains its leadership position with a TVL of 11.3 billion USD and a market share of 41.0%, while Base surpasses another Layer 2 platform to claim the second position with a TVL of 5.1 billion USD and a share of 18.6%. This surge is attributed to the increased activity brought by the social meme deployment platform Clanker based on Farcaster and the AI agent creation and deployment platform Virtuals Protocol. Meanwhile, the market share of the surpassed Layer 2 platform has dropped to 17.3%.

Starknet's 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 a TVL increase of 131.4% to $570 million.

In November, the Ethereum Foundation strengthened financial transparency by releasing the 2024 report, while outlining core values and funding strategies. Vitalik Buterin 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 their market leadership in game distribution, holding shares of 20.9%, 15.4%, and 13.4%, respectively.

User engagement patterns have seen new changes, with opBNB, Ronin, and Nebula (SKALE) leading with an average daily active user (DAU) count of 1.8 million, 900,000, and 400,000 respectively. The DAU of OpBNB has increased by 46.1%, thanks to the influences of SERAPH: In The Darkness and MEET48, as well as some games migrating from the BNB chain to opBNB. Meanwhile, Ronin has shown a strong recovery, driven by the launch of the new game Fableborne and the resurgence of Lumiterra.

Games based on a certain instant messaging application have shown mixed results. Although the TON ecosystem is facing challenges, with DAU declining by 41.9% to 116,400, Sui is going against the trend, with DAU increasing by 23.1% 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 them, five events did not disclose specific financing amounts.

Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs) has become the largest recipient of financing this month, announcing a $40 million seed round funding and a $250 million token purchase commitment. The company has shifted its positioning from an initial modular blockchain provider to that of 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 managed blockchain service provider built by Ava Labs, acquired EtraPay, gaining a team of renowned privacy technology experts and the innovative crypto token standard Encrypted ERC (eERC).

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