The Solana blockchain ecosystem has captured an outsized share of global crypto investor attention so far in 2024, according to a new research report from crypto data provider CoinGecko. The report, titled “What Are the Most Popular Blockchain Ecosystems?” found that a staggering 49.3% of interest in specific blockchain narratives has centered around the Solana ecosystem year-to-date.
Solana’s soaring popularity has been driven by the continued rally in the price of its native SOL token back toward all-time highs set in 2021. Enthusiasm has also been fueled by the strong performance of major Solana-based projects like the Pyth data oracle and popular meme coins such as dogwifhat.
To measure blockchain ecosystem popularity, CoinGecko analyzed its global web traffic data from January 1 to March 18, 2024, excluding bot traffic. The research examined interest across over 50 different blockchain ecosystems and layer 2 scaling solutions.
The Landscape Beyond Solana: Ethereum and Others
After Solana’s commanding lead, the second most popular ecosystem is the well-established Ethereum blockchain at 12.7% mindshare. However, the report notes Ethereum’s relatively lower ranking likely stems from it being a familiar, legacy chain. Attention is increasingly shifting to layer 2 networks building atop Ethereum’s base layer.
Binance’s BNB Chain ecosystem ranks third at 5.4% after BNB’s token price rallied towards new highs. In fourth place is Cosmos, with 4.5%, followed by Avalanche, which had a strong growth of its gaming and meme coin ecosystem.
Arbitrum tops the list with mindshare of 3.3% among L2s scaling Ethereum followed by Coinbase-related Base at 3.2%. Metis, zkSync, and Polygon complete the top five most popular layer 2 ecosystems. Taken together, Ethereum layer twos amount to approximately 11.9% of overall interest and so almost matches Ethereum itself at nearly 12.7%.
These findings provide insight that quantitative change in investor focus across various crypto-assets has been dramatic this year, as shown in the report. For instance, in 2024 crypto investors seemed to be shifting their attention to other blockchains such as Solana from only Ethereum as well as a few other L1s alongside an array of L2s solutions.
It remains to be seen if Solana’s wildfire can sustain its scintillating pace through the rest of the year. But for now, all eyes continue burning a gaze toward the ascendant ecosystem consuming the crypto landscape.
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