Solana makes a big leap as Web3 grows TVL by $7.5B

This past week, the total TVL balance across 218 Web3 ecosystems tracked by the 0xScope team increased by a whopping $7.47B to $97.32B, up 8.32% from last week's $89.85B. This growth figure surpassed the recent $7.33B boost two weeks ago and more than reversed the slight $387.1M decrease from last week.

About 81.65% of all Web3 ecosystems saw TVL growth this week, amid a generally bullish period in crypto marked by major bull runs for several altcoins poised to end the year on a positive note.

In this edition of the Web3 Hot Trends report, we discuss the latest trends and bright spots across Web3 ecosystems and projects.

Ecosystem TVL Growth

TVL is an essential indicator of how much capital is currently engaged in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Here are some key observations from TVL growth data we tracked this week.

1. Ethereum grows TVL by almost $4B amid Solana momentum. In a complete reversal of last week's $909M TVL loss, Ethereum more than made up for it with a $4B increase (+6.35%) in locked funds, solidifying its dominant position even as some of its major rivals show double-digit growth this week, such as Avalanche (+16.50%), Base (+12.20%), and, more notably, Solana (+56.55%).

2. Solana overtakes Arbitrum amid major bull run, $1.3B TVL growth. Solana has been grabbing much attention lately, as its $SOL native token recently surpassed $100 amid a 70% rise this month and 10x growth this year. Solana's DEXes are closely competing with Uniswap in trading volume, while its projects are receiving more attention. This recent momentum has allowed Solana ($3.66B in TVL this week) to dethrone Arbitrum ($2.9B) as the fourth-biggest Web3 ecosystem and come within striking distance of BSC ($4B) for the No. 3 spot.

3. NEAR Protocol grows by 75% after its token's 83% boost. Recent on-chain metrics indicate that NEAR Protocol has grown its active daily wallets by about 10x to more than 1 million. This growth, among other catalysts, explains NEAR's $100M TVL increase this week.

4. Manta expands 4.7x thanks to one project's 13x growth. Manta saw a 477.03% increase in its TVL, going from $18M to $104M in just one week. Much of this growth comes from its New Paradigm project, the ecosystem's version of Blast, which recently surpassed $250M in TVL.

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Project TVL Growth

Diving deeper into the projects’ TVL growth, the 0xScope team spotted positive trends from the projects that stood out this week:

1. EigenLayer's $1B deposit milestone leads to a 3x TVL rise. EigenLayer, an Ethereum restaking protocol, raised the deposit cap for its users this week, resulting in the increase of crypto deposits on the project to more than $1B. As a result, the project's TVL grew by $734.4M (+299.06%), surpassing all others except for Lido (+$1.03B).

2. Two projects contributed the most to Solana's $1.3B TVL rise. Solana staking platform Marinade Finance recently reached more than $1B in TVL, thanks to a $467.2M growth (+63.66%) this week, while its liquid staking arm increased its TVL by $277.5M (+62.96%). Meanwhile, Solana-based DeFi platform Jito leveraged its $225M token airdrop from two weeks ago into a $242.4M increase in TVL, at a 53.89% growth rate.

3. Metis Bridge TVL grows 285% after token's 105% rise. Metis Bridge added $263.4M to its locked funds in the same week that its $METIS native token skyrocketed by 104.9%. The platform claimed that its TVL currently stands at $400M

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Project User Growth

Project user growth can offer insights into the adaptability and popularity of specific projects. Here’s what stood out:

1. TinyTap adds 580,000 users in 1 month. The Animoca Brands-owned educational app is currently in a high-growth month, adding more than 150,000 users this week after already expanding by 420,000 during the previous three weeks. TinyTap has expanded its user base by 11% in the span of one month.

2. Polygon apps show healthy user growth. In terms of user growth, five out of the top 10 projects this week are on the Polygon ecosystem, led by Popcorn's addition of about 39,000 new users. Also notable is quest platform Carv's 31% user growth this week after adding 16,000 new users.

Full List

Notes:

Users, as defined by 0xScope’s tools, pertain to real users behind addresses, calculated by 0xScope’s proprietary entity and bot recognition algorithm.

TVL stands for total value locked in a project.

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