From May 4–10, another strong week for the blockchain ecosystem saw leading chains displaying enthusiastic user engagement and capital inflow.
Between those dates, the weekly OKX Explorer revealed several eye-catching developments that were both in line with recent trends and worth highlighting. For one, the number of processed transactions kept climbing, and so did the dollar value of those transactions. Meanwhile, the Fear and Greed Index was still sitting pretty in the “Greed” zone.
Among the key standouts, there was Fractal Bitcoin, which maintained a clear lead over the competition in total transaction count. BNB Chain’s extraordinary growth, both in terms of volume and number of transactions, was another highlight. And lastly, there was Ethereum, which made an impressive comeback in USD transaction volume, even as it fell away from the upper echelon of the rankings by transaction count.
Fractal Bitcoin Retains Top Spot, Base and BNB Chain Make Strong Gains
Once again, all networks achieved a surprising 97631983 transactions executed during the seven days. Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t. Fractal Bitcoin, a state-legal crypto with the ignoble side effect of possibly facilitating certain money-laundering crimes in states where it is legal, is the clear leader (actually, by far, the clear leader) in “transaction” throughput and has been so since early 2022.
Fractal Bitcoin achieved by FORBES’s count a staggering 97631983 executed transactions over the seven days.
Base, the Layer 2 solution backed by Coinbase, carries on with a wave of sustained development and now has 59.23 million transactions to its name. That’s an increase of 15.70% over the week prior. It’s also the fourth week on the trot that Base has seen rising activity. In other words, if you’re building stuff for DeFi or dApps, you might very well consider using Base as your development chain.
Nonetheless, BNB Chain was the week’s most explosive performer in terms of transaction count growth. It notched up 49.23 million transactions, a remarkable 54.08% week-over-week growth. This sharp rebound followed a period of volatility and now suggests that renewed incentives or strategic partnerships may be re-pulling users back into the Binance ecosystem.
High-volume other chains include Aptos, with 25.7 million transactions (down 10.61%); Sui Network with 25.66 million (down 2.40%); and Tron with 25.23 million (a decline of 1.98%). Meanwhile, Polygon increase its number of transactions by 9.34%, and Arbitrum decrease its number of transactions by 14.11%, while closing the week with 11.72 transactions.
Transaction Volumes Soar: Ethereum and Sui Network Take the Lead
Count of transactions is one way to measure engagement, but even clearer is the picture that USD transaction volume paints—a picture of clear market momentum. And here, too, Sui Network and Ethereum are leading the pack. Sui is at the top, by a large margin, with a $46.05 billion weekly total that is a near 20% increase week-over-week. This seems to be a sustained rise in Sui’s importance for large-value transfers or financial applications.
Ethereum surged and amassed volume of $29.86 billion, up 60.30% week-over-week from $18.63 billion. It remains unmatched when it comes to financial activity. Undeniably, it is still the go-to chain for institutions, much large decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and all things non-fungible token (NFT). Despite it not being in the top number of transactions with other chains, the gross number of dollars involved in financial activity through Ethereum is astonishing.
The BNB chain made a remarkable recovery, with transaction volume jumping to $5.89 billion a fantastic 189.55 increase from the slump of the previous week.
Arbitrum rose to $4.0 billion (34.78% WoW), and Base followed with $2.8 billion (48.18%).
Tron also registered a good $1.5 billion in volume, and Optimism nearly doubled its previous volume 499.2 million with a 99.68% increase.
These volume surges directly correspond with a sentiment in the market that is bullish. In other words, the market is up; the market is flowing with capital. And that capital is flowing because there is an overwhelming and optimistic sentiment about the stability of token prices and macroeconomic conditions.
Market Sentiment Drives On-Chain Liquidity and User Engagement
All those trends have one thing in common: They are the product of a broader sentiment across crypto markets. The average Fear and Greed Index (FGI) for the week was in the “Greed” zone, where it has been for several weeks. This signals a reestablished level of confidence from investors, and essentially a stated risk appetite. Major assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum have performed well and steadily enough at this point to create a situation where further liquidity is reentering the market.
The link between sentiment and activity is most apparent in Base and BNB Chain. Both chains enjoyed substantial growth in transaction volume and count. They have profited from a fresh wave of marketing, incentive programs for their ecosystems, and a growing interest in applying their respective technologies in the real world, especially in DeFi—decentralized finance—and gaming.
We are now well into Q2, and it looks like investor sentiment will be the main driver of growth in this quarter. To get an edge on the type of growth we can expect, we can look at on-chain metrics—the current state of the blockchain itself, and how users are interacting with it. From a high level, we can see that a lot more people are participating in the blockchain universe than this time last year. Whether the momentum keeps going depends on how the macro picture looks, any upcoming regulatory changes, and whether the top blockchain ecosystems keep innovating.
As of now, the information obtained from May 4–10 provides a clear image: the market is shifting, the user base is connecting, and the multiple chains are witnessing a more rapid and gushing flow of capital than they have in months.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!
The post OKX Explorer Weekly Report: Fractal Bitcoin Dominates, BNB Chain Surges as On-Chain Activity Accelerates appeared first on The Merkle News.
