Author: Joe, Foresight News
Could Blast become the next blockchain product to achieve mass adoption? Or is it just a flash in the pan, starting to decline after the airdrop?
On June 26, 2024, Blast distributed airdrops and listed tokens on exchanges such as Coinbase and Upbit, but has not yet been listed on Binance and OKX. As of July 1, Blast's market value is about 380 million US dollars, second only to Arbitrum (26 billion US dollars), OP (20 billion US dollars), Starknet (9 billion US dollars), and ZK (6.5 billion US dollars) in the same track; TVL has reached 1.45 billion US dollars, second only to Arbitrum (2.8 billion US dollars) and Base (1.57 billion US dollars).
As the "youngest" Ethereum L2, Blast has made it to the top five in the track in just half a year, with impressive performance in both TVL and user numbers. The founder, Pacman, born in 1999, is a serial entrepreneur in Web3. At the age of 22, he founded Blur, currently the world's largest NFT exchange (with a market share of 65%), and then founded Blast. Pacman's choice of these two tracks represents the most promising tracks in the crypto industry in the past two cycles, which has also raised high expectations for Blast among users.
However, while accumulating various data, Blast has also been controversial, from being questioned from the beginning as an L2 (not decentralized enough, Web2 product strategy), to diluting points "cutting big holders" during the airdrop, delaying the airdrop from May to June, and to the doubts about the final airdrop benefits for Blast. The controversies faced by Blast may be the most among all Ethereum L2.
So, crossing all the controversies, what kind of L2 is Blast? Why does it attract enough traffic and TVL data despite the controversies? Does it have the opportunity to stand out among the various Ethereum L2s, breaking through new user circles? Or is it just a flash in the pan, running out of new user acquisition methods after the airdrop? (This article starts from the advantages and strengths shown by Blast, which does not mean agreeing with the controversies mentioned above)
Pacman, Founder of Blast
"Professional in the Industry"
Pacman, only 25 years old, has a significant influence on the current cryptocurrency industry in terms of technology and ecology. Looking at the entire crypto industry, after Vitalik, Pacman has a certain potential to bring continuous and significant changes to the industry. This comes from the two companies he founded: Blur and Blast.
These two companies have become "leaders" in the "NFT" and "Ethereum L2" tracks, and have quickly stirred up the entire industry ecosystem.
Taking the NFT industry as an example, OpenSea, founded in 2017, was once the leader in the NFT market. However, after more than a year since its establishment in March 2022, Blur surpassed OpenSea by introducing a series of trading tools and functions to attract more professional and high-frequency traders, becoming the leader in the NFT track.
In the Ethereum L2 track, Pacman seems to want to replicate this success. In just half a year, Blast has become a leader in this track. The latest data from Defillama shows (as of July 1):
- In terms of TVL, Blast has reached 1.45 billion US dollars, ranking in the top three in the track, second only to Arbitrum (2.8 billion US dollars) and Base (1.57 billion US dollars);
- In terms of Ethereum ecosystem protocol usage, Blast Bridge ranks second, surpassing Base and OP, second only to Arbitrum Bridge;
- In terms of market value, Blast has reached 380 million US dollars, ranking in the top five in the track, second only to Arbitrum (26 billion US dollars), OP (20 billion US dollars), Starknet (9 billion US dollars), and ZK (6.5 billion US dollars);
- In the stablecoin field, the stablecoin USDB launched by Blast has a market value of 390 million US dollars, ranking 11th among all stablecoins;
- In the native DEX track, Blast ranks third. In terms of 24-hour trading volume, Blast's Thruster (55 million US dollars) is second only to Base's Aero (120 million US dollars) and Arbitrum's Camelot (64 million US dollars).
Overall, Blast has performed well in overall TVL, stablecoins, NFTs, DEX, and other aspects, and has become a highly potential ecosystem, competing with Arbitrum and Base, and surpassing other L2s in many aspects. It is worth mentioning that the Meme in the Blast ecosystem also has a good performance. For example, Andy in the Blast ecosystem has reached 28 million US dollars and is expected to surpass Pacmoon, becoming the largest Meme in its ecosystem.
As an industry "leader," Blur has become the leader in the NFT industry after more than a year of development, and Blast is currently trying to establish itself in the top three positions in the Ethereum L2, which has also put pressure on many L2s. After Blast, some L2 projects have also chosen to distribute airdrops using a points system, which has once again sparked controversy in the community.
Can Blast become the next mass adoption product?
People who are bearish on Blast have different opinions, while those who are bullish on Blast generally have similar views.
One industry practitioner pointed out: Pacman is good at systematic innovation and always finds the pain points of users. The success of Blur largely comes from Pacman's discovery of the needs of professional and high-frequency users and the creation of a series of customized trading tools and functions to attract them to trade on its platform. Blast hopes to create an image of an "APP Store" for the blockchain industry, becoming the entry point for all users to enter the blockchain world.
All L2s hope to become the entry point for users to enter the blockchain world. The advantage of Blast lies in the fact that the products in the Blast ecosystem generally have the characteristic of being "simple and easy to use" in terms of user experience.
- In terms of DEX, the Thruster product provides a smooth experience, and the conversion of tokens within the Blast ecosystem is convenient;
- In terms of social interaction, the Fantasy interface is beautiful and shows signs of becoming popular, attempting to prove the value of blockchain data for each account through metrics such as Twitter activity and number of followers;
- In terms of gaming, YOLO GAMES has performed relatively well in data, with new small games constantly appearing, and has attracted 6.7 million independent users within two weeks;
- In terms of the points system, Blast has pioneered the points-based airdrop system for L2 (Points+Gold), and now Scroll and Linea are also experimenting with the points system;
- In terms of NFTs, the largest NFT exchange in the Blast ecosystem, Blur, has found a real entry point for demand (professional and high-frequency NFT players) and surpassed OpenSea during the bear market.
It should be noted that any DApp can add itself to the official website list of Blast, which also means that Blast does not guarantee the security of user funds when experiencing these applications. During the airdrop period, there have been multiple cases of user assets being stolen in the Blast ecosystem, which may continue to exist in the future. This is also a problem that Blast needs to face in order to further break through existing users.
Blast and Base are currently the star L2 projects. Their commonalities include strong recognition of their advantages, strong innovation and disruptive capabilities, and continuous attempts to reach new users. However, there are also many differences between the two.
One major recognition factor for Base is its strong lineage, as it is a blockchain team directly incubated by the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase. With the increasing dominance and influence of the United States and Wall Street in the crypto world, Base naturally assumes a part of this asset. Especially in the meme space, Base has become the next Solana and currently has the most frequent meme trading and the largest trading volume in L2. Base has been breaking new ground, from the social app Friend Tech gaining popularity in August 2023, generating $710,000 in protocol revenue in a day, to the social protocol Farcaster massively breaking new ground in February 2024, becoming the number one protocol in Web3 social rankings, and to the ongoing active meme trading on the chain since March 2024, Base has visibly attracted new users and transactions to its ecosystem.
On the other hand, one major recognition factor for Blast is the presence of distinctive "flagship products" in the Blast ecosystem, which are highly practical. For example, the stablecoin USDB has been able to compete in the fiercely competitive stablecoin market, while in the NFT market, the leading support from Blur has captured over 6% of the market. In financial products with strong demand such as lending (Juice) and contracts (Bloom), the products are simple and easy to use. In some emerging Web3 tracks, such as social (Fantasy) and gaming (YOLO GAMES), there are products with differentiation and recognition leading the way. The simplicity and richness of products in the Blast ecosystem have become its advantage in attracting more users to the online world.
During the airdrop process, Blast also launched a mobile app, which is relatively rare in L2. From the launch of L2, the introduction of the airdrop points system, the introduction of Blast Gold, the introduction of Multiples, to the current launch of the mobile version of the Blast app, Blast has consistently brought new experiences to users. For an L2 that has only been developed for half a year, Blast's frequency of innovation is remarkable, giving it the opportunity to compete for the leading position in L2 and become the next gateway for blockchain mass adoption.
Of course, Blast's openness to all Web3 products entering its ecosystem also means that users' funds are facing significant risks. Additionally, whether Blast can maintain continuous and frequent innovation after the first round of airdrops and bring more fresh gameplay to the community is also a point of skepticism. It seems that Blast still has a long way to go to achieve the goals of becoming the "leading L2" and the "next gateway for blockchain mass adoption."
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