November 2024 Public Chain Industry Research Report: Bitcoin Hits Historical High Leading the Market to a Comprehensive Pump

In November 2024, the blockchain industry welcomes a "big bull market". Bitcoin continues to set new price highs, about to break the important threshold of $100,000, while its market cap surpasses major traditional assets like silver. Ethereum has also achieved a strong recovery, with altcoins rebounding significantly. Bitcoin Layer 2 continues to grow robustly, while Ethereum Layer 2 grows relatively moderately under intense competition.

Market Overview

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

The results of the U.S. election have become a catalyst for the growth of the crypto market, potentially impacting future cryptocurrency legislation and regulation. The market has responded 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 was some volatility in international markets, with the renminbi under pressure amid concerns over potential 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. Bitcoin maintained its dominant position with a 68.1% share, but this was a decrease from 70.1% in October. Ethereum reversed its downward trend, reaching a market share of 15.9%, while Solana surpassed the BNB chain with a share of 4.0%.

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 201.5%, and Polkadot (DOT) up 130.7%. The surge of Stellar reflects the growing market attention to its cross-border remittance infrastructure and CBDC capabilities, which may be influenced by expectations for 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 capital outflow from a prediction market platform after the US presidential election. The downward trend of TON since October continues, driven by a weakening momentum in related gaming and Meme activities.

The Move technology stack blockchain continues to maintain strong development momentum. 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 its testnet data showing impressive results: 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 reports indicate that a certain 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 well-known stablecoin company stated that they will remain neutral rather than launch their own blockchain, addressing industry concerns.

Bitcoin Layer 2 and Sidechains

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

Core has strengthened its market leadership position, with a TVL increase of 55.7% to $890 million, expanding its market share 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 ranks fourth with a TVL of $240 million.

At the BTCfi project level, Pell Network becomes 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 (normalized bridging portion) of Ethereum Layer 2 solutions reached $27.5 billion, an increase of 2.0% compared to October, continuing to lag behind the growth rate of Bitcoin scaling solutions.

Arbitrum One maintains its leadership position with a TVL of $11.3 billion and a market share of 41.0%, while Base surpasses Optimism to take the second position with a TVL of $5.1 billion and a share of 18.6%. This surge is attributed to the increase in activity brought by the Farcaster-based social meme deployment platform and the AI agent creation and deployment platform. Meanwhile, Optimism's market share has dropped to 17.3%.

Starknet TVL rose 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 STRK staking launched on November 26 and the CEO's commitment to significantly enhance performance in the next quarter. Meanwhile, World Chain performed excellently, with TVL increasing by 131.4% to $570 million.

In November, the Ethereum Foundation reinforced 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 market leadership in game distribution, with shares of 20.9%, 15.4%, and 13.4%, respectively.

User engagement patterns are undergoing new changes, with opBNB, Ronin, and Nebula (SKALE) leading the way with an average daily active user (DAU) count of 1.8 million, 900,000, and 400,000 respectively. OpBNB's DAU has increased 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. Meanwhile, Ronin is showing a strong recovery, driven by the launch of the new game Fableborne and the resurgence of Lumiterra.

Games based on Telegram have 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 up 23.1% to 233,300, mainly due to the success of BIRDS and significant user retention metrics.

Financing Status

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 recipient of funding this month, announcing a $40 million seed round financing and 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 secured funding this month, including Cytonic, Pharos, Talus Network, EtraPay, and Datalayer. Notably, AvaCloud, a custody blockchain service provider built by Ava Labs, acquired EtraPay, gaining a team comprised 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 financing, 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.