2023 SocialFi Ecosystem Landscape and Investment Overview
In the rapidly growing field of cryptocurrency, are we in the early stages of SocialFi?Author: Pink Brains
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Twitter took 5 years to attract 100 million users, while Facebook took 8 years to reach 1 billion.
SocialFi is a relatively new concept that is gaining momentum in the cryptocurrency space. Are we in the early stages of SocialFi? What does the SocialFi landscape look like in 2023? Let's take a look:
Segments and Notable Projects
The SocialFi ecosystem is rapidly expanding, encompassing various subfields. Broadly, we can categorize it into three main layers:
1/ Network, Storage, and Data
2/ Social Infrastructure
3/ Application Layer
Network, Storage & Data
Decentralized applications (dApps) in SocialFi are primarily built on Ethereum, BSC, and second-layer solutions like Base and Arbitrum. However, we also see growth in SocialFi on Solana and Avalanche.
Additionally, there are some blockchains specifically built for SocialFi, such as Deso and Subsocial.
SocialFi applications can store data directly on the blockchain, use decentralized data storage services, or both. IPFS, Arweave, and Filecoin have long-standing reputations in the decentralized data storage space. The Graph is integrated into many dApps to organize data.
Social Infrastructure
This is the core layer of the SocialFi ecosystem, including the infrastructure for SocialFi dApps. A key element is the social graph, which manages each user's social graph.
Notable dApps: CyberConnect, LensProtocol, Farcaster.
The second subcategory of social infrastructure is user identity protocols, referred to as "Identify."
Notable projects in this area include: Ens, SpaceID, Unstoppable.
The POAP project also enhances user identity by providing proof of participation.
If you're looking for incentivized community activities to participate in, you shouldn't miss events on Galxe, Quest, Layer3, and TaskOn.
Additionally, there are tools to facilitate the transition from Web2 to Web3. A typical example is Mask, which gained widespread attention due to rapid growth at the end of last year.
Application Layer
The application layer is the most exciting aspect of SocialFi, not only because of its diversity but also because it drives user engagement within the ecosystem.
Lens is revolutionizing social reputation through a unified social graph across multiple applications. Notable statistics include:
Monthly transaction volume surged to 4.2 million;
Active users reached a historic high of 30,000 in February.
Friendtech is a unique SocialFi application on BASE for trading KOL "keys," including private chats, airdrops, and fee sharing. Its popularity skyrocketed, amassing over 100,000 users and generating $25 million in revenue within two weeks. As of October 2, the total locked value exceeded 30,000 ETH.
Next Trends
Deeper adoption from large Web2 companies: acceptance of NFTs, open-source, transparent revenue-sharing programs, and more integrations (like X, Threads, Reddit & Telegram).
Top venture capital firms are focusing on seed investments in SocialFi, such as Binance, Solana Ventures, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures.
So, do you think we are at the dawn or dusk of SocialFi? How long will it take for SocialFi to attract its first 100 million users? We hope this article has given you a rough understanding of the SocialFi landscape in 2023. Let’s witness its growth together and further explore your favorite projects.
