Review of the data performance of 8 mainstream public chains over the past 3 months: Ethereum makes a comeback, while Base and Hyperliquid data soar

Author: Frank, PANews

In the past three months, the crypto market has seen a significant rebound. The performance of mainstream public chains has become the focus of the market, with Ethereum making a strong comeback propelled by ETF funds and institutional buying. The prices of Solana, Sui, Hyperliquid, and others have also risen sharply. From the price trend, the market appears to be entering a long-awaited altcoin season. But how is the development status of these public chains behind the prices?

This article summarizes the core indicators of eight major public chains with significant TVL amounts and popularity over the past three months—price, TVL, capital flow, on-chain activity, and ecological progress—aiming to outline the real status of this round of public chain racing. The data period is from April 20 to July 20.

Ethereum: A King’s Return Driven by Capital

Ethereum has recently seen significant improvements in various data, which correlate with its price performance. Over the past three months, Ethereum's price rose from $1,600 to a peak of over $3,800, an increase of more than 130%. Behind the price surge, Ethereum's ecosystem TVL also increased by 61.34%, with a net inflow of $8.3 billion in on-chain capital over the past three months, once again becoming the public chain with the largest inflow of capital. However, the growth in TVL is mainly attributed to the rise in the price of the ETH token. In terms of the number of ETH, the Ethereum ecosystem has seen a decline, dropping from 28.39 million in April to about 22.28 million currently, a reduction of 21%.

In terms of on-chain daily active users and transaction volume, there was an increase of 11.94% and 16%, respectively, without any particularly significant enhancement. Additionally, Ethereum's spot ETF saw a notable increase during this time, with a net increase of about $5 billion. Coupled with several U.S. publicly listed companies following MicroStrategy and adopting Ethereum as a reserve token, Ethereum has received more buying pressure and positive market sentiment. In summary, capital drive may be the main factor behind Ethereum's significant price increase.

Solana: Market Value Recovery Amid Declining Activity

In contrast to Ethereum, while SOL's price has also seen a substantial increase, rebounding from $139 to a maximum of $189 recently, various metrics within the Solana ecosystem show no significant improvement and even a downward trend. Over the past three months, there was a net outflow of approximately $1.12 million in on-chain capital, and the number of daily active addresses fell by 14%. The issuance of stablecoins has also slightly decreased, by about $1.5 billion.

TVL increased from $7.3 billion to $9.237 billion during this period. Within the ecosystem, Pump.fun remains the largest platform for trading volume, contributing a transaction volume of $234 billion in the past month. Moreover, among the top DEX rankings, OKX DEX surprisingly ranked in the top ten with a monthly trading volume of $4.6 billion.

Currently, the daily new token issuance in Solana is around 40,000 to 50,000, a significant decrease from the 90,000 to 100,000 level in January of this year. Nevertheless, it remains relatively stable without experiencing a cliff-like drop.

Currently, Solana's staking rate is about 66%, but it is noticeable that the number of validators is declining, which means larger validators are gradually replacing smaller validators.

BSC: Alpha Activity Ignites On-Chain Revival

The data effects for BSC seem to be entirely opposite to Solana's. In terms of token price, BNB’s changes over the past three months have not been particularly prominent, rebounding nearly 30%. However, on-chain daily active users, transaction volume, and stablecoin issuance have all seen significant growth. Firstly, the number of daily active addresses grew from 25.2 million to 44 million, an increase of 74.6%; daily transaction volume surged from 7.85 million to 16.82 million, increasing by about 114%; the issuance of stablecoins rose from $7.12 billion to $11 billion, growing by 55%. Based on these metrics, BSC has gained noticeable data changes over the past three months, likely driven by Alpha activities.

Although on-chain activity has significantly increased, BSC faced a net outflow of $950 million in capital over the past three months. Converting active users attracted by activities into retained funds may be the challenge BSC needs to address going forward.

Base: Rapid Expansion Providing Lifeblood to Ethereum

Base's on-chain data performance is also striking, with TVL increasing from $2.4 billion to $4 billion over three months, a 63% growth. The number of daily active addresses surged from 15.6 million to 33.6 million, an increase of 115%, while daily transaction volume rose by 23%. Overall, Base's on-chain data has shown significant improvements, but there was a large outflow of funds, with a net outflow of $5.6 billion over three months, making it the public chain with the highest net outflow. Data shows that these funds ultimately flowed into Ethereum. Base has also become the largest source of capital for the Ethereum mainnet recently.

Additionally, Base has implemented Flashblocks technology, reducing block generation time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds, making it the fastest EVM chain currently. Meanwhile, Coinbase launched the Base App, creating a one-stop social and trading platform, which will further promote the development of the Base ecosystem.

Arbitrum: A Period of Accumulation as the L2 Runner-Up

Arbitrum's overall data has not changed significantly. Apart from a 34% increase in TVL, transaction volume rose by 22%. The number of daily active addresses remained virtually unchanged, at 4.6 million three months ago and currently. However, the price of ARB recently rebounded by 66%, which is relatively strong among several major public chains. This might be attributed to the rising Ethereum prices; although Arbitrum's data changes are minimal, it still firmly holds the second position among Ethereum L2s.

Sui: TVL and Token Price Soar Together

SUI’s price has recently skyrocketed, rising from $2.15 to a peak of $4.24, an increase of 97%, nearly doubling. Behind this surge, there are some underlying data supports. Specifically, TVL grew from $1.2 billion in April to $2.2 billion, an increase of over 84%. Additionally, the issuance of stablecoins also surpassed $1 billion. In terms of daily active addresses, from May to June, Sui experienced a roller coaster ride, dropping from 1.5 million per day to 400,000 per day, before rebounding to around 1 million in early July. However, it has not yet returned to previous peak levels.

Hyperliquid: Rocketing Rise After Trust Turmoil

Hyperliquid has been the best-performing public chain over the past three months, with its token price soaring from $18 to $49.9, and its market cap exceeding $15 billion, ranking thirteenth among all tokens.

Reflecting on-chain data, TVL increased from $640 million to $1.943 billion, a surge of 202%. The issuance of stablecoins rose from $2.1 billion to $4.9 billion, quickly becoming the fifth largest in terms of issuance. After experiencing a prior crisis of decentralized trust, Hyperliquid's treasury HLP yield has recently surged again, exceeding $68 million, setting a new historical high. Entering July, Hyperliquid's daily new user count also exceeded 3,000 again.

Aptos: A Lurking Participant Amid Data Deceleration

Compared to other public chains, Aptos appears somewhat disappointing both in terms of on-chain data and price. The price rose by 10% over three months, while several key metrics such as TVL, capital flow, and daily active addresses registered negative values. The most notable change might be a 34% increase in daily transaction volume with stablecoin issuance rising by $300 million. Compared to Sui, which also uses the MOVE language, Aptos seems to be lagging behind in multiple data dimensions.

Overall, the recent public chain data performance does not appear as intense as the market's perception of token prices. Although networks like Sui, Hyperliquid, Base, and others have shown obvious data improvements driven by the market, this enhancement is evidently lower than the rise in token prices. Clearly, this represents a stage where capital is recovering ahead of the ecosystem. Behind this revival, whether the performance of token prices can be converted into the ecological prosperity of each public chain, or whether it can drive practical application tracks like DeFi and blockchain games similar to past bull markets, may be the core factor that sustains this round of altcoin season for longer. Thus, although the current prices and on-chain data seem to be out of sync, in subsequent developments, this data may also become a decisive factor in price movements.