Ethereum Leads Q1 Revenue
• Ethereum led the way in Q1 2023 with a revenue of $457M, nearly 2.8x that of all other L1s.
• Stablecoin market saw a reshuffle due to USDC’s depeg and halt in BUSD issuance, leading to USDT’s dominance.
• Networks such as Stacks (403%) and Solana (125%) experienced the highest quarter-on-quarter increase in staked tokens.
Q1 Market Overview
In the first quarter of 2023, Layer-1 (L1) smart contract platforms saw an average market cap surge of 83%, despite a slight 2.5% decrease in network usage. Stacks had an impressive performance due to renewed interest in Bitcoin programmability, while Ethereum maintained its dominance across several key financial and ecosystem metrics. The stablecoin market saw an interesting shift with Tether’s (USDT) increased dominance over other coins such as USDC and BUSD. Every network experienced a quarter-on-quarter increase in staked tokens with Stacks (403%) and Solana (125%) taking the lead.
Ethereum Dominates Revenue
Driven by high usage and gas fees, Ethereum generated the highest revenue amongst all featured L1s with $457M during Q1 2023 – almost 2.8x the combined revenue of all other platforms included in this report. Hedera Hashgraph also had significant revenue growth of 489% on a quarter-on-quarter basis due to its Consensus Service fees.
Stablecoin Market Reshuffle
The shifting landscape of stablecoins was driven by USDC’s temporary depeg and Paxos halting BUSD issuance which resulted in Tether’s increased dominance within the crypto space – particularly benefitting networks like TRON that witnessed a 30% boost in their market cap for these coins.
Increase In Staked Tokens
All networks featured recorded increases in total staked tokens when measured against USD terms during Q1 2023; with notable performances from Stacks (403%) and Solana (125%). The surge was larger than their respective market cap growth, indicating an overall uptick for native tokens being staked within each network’s respective ecosystems.