November 2024 Public Chain Industry Research Report: Bitcoin Hits New Highs Triggering Comprehensive Rise

In November 2024, the blockchain industry is experiencing a strong bull market. Bitcoin's price continues to hit new historical highs, nearly breaking the $100,000 barrier, while its market capitalization surpasses that of silver and other major traditional assets. Ethereum also sees a significant rebound, and the altcoin market performs well. While Bitcoin Layer 2 continues to grow robustly, Ethereum Layer 2 faces increasingly fierce competition, with relatively moderate growth.

Market Overview

In November, the cryptocurrency market set a historical high, with Bitcoin soaring from $69,386 to $96,427, a rise of 39.0%. Ethereum followed closely, climbing from $2,511 to $3,711, a rise of 47.8%. Bitcoin's outstanding performance has allowed its market capitalization to surpass that of silver and Saudi Aramco, maintaining its position as the seventh largest global asset after approaching the $100,000 mark on November 23.

The results of the US elections have become a catalyst for growth in the crypto market, potentially having a profound impact on cryptocurrency legislation and regulation. The market has reacted positively to this, particularly reflected in the performance of popular sectors such as memecoins, decentralized artificial intelligence (deAI) projects, and decentralized science (DeSci).

The broader financial markets are also performing strongly. The financial sector is leading the stock market amid expectations of U.S. tax reform and regulatory easing. However, the international markets have experienced some volatility, with the Renminbi under pressure due to concerns over potential U.S. tariffs, while gold prices have fallen as election-related uncertainties have diminished.

Layer 1

In November 2024, the total market capitalization of blockchain surged by 41.1% to $2.8 trillion. Although Bitcoin maintained a dominant position 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 the BNB chain with a share of 4.0%.

In the context of Bitcoin continually setting price records, altcoins have shown outstanding performance. Stellar (XLM) leads with a rise of 466.8%, followed by Hedera (HBAR) with an increase of 269.7%, Cardano (ADA) rising by 201.5%, and Polkadot (DOT) increasing by 130.7%. Among these, Stellar's surge significantly reflects the market's growing interest in its cross-border remittance infrastructure and CBDC capabilities, which may be influenced by expectations of clearer regulatory frameworks 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 declined by 5.9% due to a capital outflow from a certain prediction market platform after the U.S. presidential election. TON's downward trend since October continues, attributed to a slowdown in momentum related to a certain instant messaging app's game and Meme activities.

The Move technology stack blockchain continues to maintain a strong momentum of development. Sui has reached new highs in token price and market capitalization, while establishing 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 central sectors on the stage. USDS, as the first major DeFi native stablecoin, has launched on Solana, and it has been reported that a certain payment company is about to receive approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for its stablecoin. As the influence of stablecoins continues to grow, the industry is paying attention to whether some companies will issue their own blockchains. The CEO of a stablecoin issuance company stated that their company will remain neutral and not launch its own blockchain, responding to industry concerns.

Bitcoin Layer 2 and Sidechains

In November 2024, Bitcoin Layer 2 and sidechains experienced significant growth, with a total TVL reaching $2.4 billion, an increase of 34.6% compared to October. The competition for Bitcoin liquidity intensified among major platforms.

Core has strengthened its market leadership position, with TVL rising 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 liquid 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 growth of 53.1% to a TVL of $260 million, rising to third place, while Rootstock ranks fourth with a TVL of $240 million.

At the BTCfi project level, Pell Network leads with a TVL of $400 million, followed by Avalon Finance (Bitlayer and Core) and DeSyn (Bitlayer) with strong performances across multiple chains, each having over $200 million in TVL.

Ethereum Layer 2

In November 2024, the total TVL (in the standardized bridging part) 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 large Layer 2 platform maintains its leadership position with a TVL of $11.3 billion and a market share of 41.0%, while another Layer 2 platform surpasses the third place to take the second position with a TVL of $5.1 billion and a share of 18.6%. This is attributed to the surge in activity brought by a meme deployment platform based on a certain social protocol and an AI agent creation and deployment platform. Meanwhile, the market share of the third place has dropped to 17.3%.

Starknet 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 improve performance in the next quarter. Meanwhile, World Chain performed exceptionally well, with TVL increasing by 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 a few public chains maintaining market leadership in game distribution, holding shares of 20.9%, 15.4%, and 13.4%, respectively.

User engagement patterns have undergone new changes, with opBNB, Ronin, and Nebula (SKALE) leading the way with an average daily active users (DAU) of 1.8 million, 900,000, and 400,000 respectively. The DAU of opBNB grew by 46.1%, thanks to the promotion of SERAPH: In The Darkness and MEET48, as well as the migration of some games from the BNB chain to opBNB. At the same time, Ronin has shown a strong recovery, driven by the launch of the new game Fableborne and the resurgence of Lumiterra.

The game based on a certain instant messaging platform has shown mixed results. Although the TON ecosystem is facing challenges, with DAU down 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 these, five events did not disclose specific financing amounts.

Zero Gravity Labs (0G Labs) has become the largest fundraising recipient this month, announcing a $40 million seed round funding as well as a $250 million token purchase commitment. The company has shifted its positioning from an initial modular blockchain provider to a crypto AI startup, developing a decentralized AI operating system (dAIOS) for building AI applications on-chain.

Several Layer 1 blockchains raised funding this month, including Cytonic, Pharos, Talus Network, EtraPay, and Datalayer. Notably, a custody blockchain service provider built by a certain company acquired EtraPay, gaining a team composed of renowned privacy technology experts and the innovative encrypted token standard Encrypted ERC (eERC).

The Layer 2 ecosystem continues to maintain investment activity, with six projects receiving a new round of funding, including Bitcoin Layer 2's Bitfinity and Lnfi Network, Ethereum Layer 2's Heurist and Corn, as well as other Layer 2 projects Akave and AgentLayer.