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Solana Q2 report: DEX average trading volume increased 3 times year-on-year, with daily active addresses of 300,000

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Key Metrics for Continued Growth and Adoption of Solana Blockchain’s Various Use Cases and Ecosystem in 2023

Original Title: "Solana 2023 Q2 Report"

Original Author: Step Finance, DeFi position manager and aggregator

Original Translation: Odaily Planet Daily

Recently, DeFi position manager and aggregator Step Finance released the "Solana Q2 2023 Report".

A report shows that since the launch of the mainnet, Solana has expanded to over 3400 validators and has over 2400 consensus nodes - significantly higher than other POS blockchains. The distribution of Solana's staking is as follows: 23.5% in the United States, 13.2% in the United Kingdom, and 11.9% in Ireland.

On the developer side, as of April 2023, Solana has 1234 active developers; a 12% decrease compared to the previous year, but this number has increased by 339% compared to two years ago. The monthly number of active developers in 2023 has decreased, mainly due to a decrease in one-time and part-time developers.

Regarding NFT, in late June, Solana's NFT trading volume surpassed Ethereum for the first time, with Solana's daily trading volume reaching a maximum of $25.5 million, while Ethereum's trading volume was $24.7 million. In addition, Solana's NFT lending ecosystem is rapidly developing, with loan volume in the past 30 days equivalent to 50% of Solana's NFT trading volume. The main lending platforms on Solana include Sharky, Citrus, Frakt, and RainFi. Sharky dominates the lending market with a 76% market share, followed by Citrus (16%), Frakt (7%), and RainFi (1%).

The following is the original report, compiled by Odaily Star Daily.

Introduction

In this report, we will introduce key events and progress that promote the growth of the Solana ecosystem. We will also present various use cases for the Solana blockchain in 2023, covering areas such as finance, gaming, NFTs, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks. Data such as active addresses, developer activity, on-chain transaction volume, and liquidity are key indicators we use to demonstrate the continued growth and adoption of the Solana ecosystem.

One, Macro Outlook

During the first half of the year, the global economy faced many challenges, particularly in emerging and developed markets. One of the most important factors causing this instability was the sharp rise in interest rates, which led to a significant decrease in market liquidity and put enormous pressure on businesses and consumers due to tightened funding. In addition, the impact of rate hikes has now become fully apparent.

Several banks in Europe and the United States are on the brink of collapse or suffering significant financial losses. This development has heightened concerns about the stability of the global financial system and its potential impact on the broader economy.

Due to the significant interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, the inflation rate has been on a significant downward trend, while the unemployment rate has remained at a surprisingly low level.

美国 SEC 称 Solana 为证券
translates to

US SEC calls Solana a security
in English.

In early June, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stirred up a storm in the crypto world by announcing a major lawsuit against crypto trading giant Binance. Additionally, of concern to the crypto community was the SEC's assertion that certain altcoins, including Solana, Polygon, and Cardano, are classified as securities.

The list of tokens suspected of being securities includes Binance's own BNB, stablecoin BUSD, and several other high market value tokens. The direct impact of the SEC's enforcement action is a significant drop in the prices of these tokens. For example, Solana plummeted more than 6% within an hour of the announcement, and the prices of tokens such as Algorand, Polygon, and Polkadot also fell sharply. Less than 24 hours after suing Binance, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, which also claimed that Solana and other altcoins are securities.

BlackRock plans to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF

In June of this year, BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, applied to establish a Bitcoin trading platform exchange-traded fund (ETF), which will allow investors to invest in BTC spot because this asset class is under strict regulatory scrutiny.

According to a document submitted to the SEC, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust will use Coinbase Custody as its custodian. So far, US regulators have rejected more than 30 applications and have not approved any applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF. However, investors and analysts are particularly optimistic because past data shows that 575 out of BlackRock's 576 ETF applications have been approved.

Active Address

Solana showed resilience in the first 6 months before 2023, with an average of 300,000 daily active addresses. Solana's active addresses are comparable to Ethereum and Polygon, slightly lower than the average level of Bitcoin. It is worth noting that the FTX collapse occurred at the end of 2022, and the data above also shows that the Solana user base did not decrease as expected.

The stability of daily active addresses indicates that the Solana network and its user community are resilient.

DEX Trading Volume

FTX crash triggered the largest weekly trading volume in the history of Solana DEX, followed by a month-long stagnation. Since then, the story of DEX has been attracting users and thus attracting new capital.

Since the FTX crash, except for December, the monthly trading volume has not slowed down.

NFT lending

NFT lending is an increasingly popular practice where individuals use their NFTs as collateral to obtain loans on platforms such as Sharky. This form of lending allows investors or lenders to earn interest from their investments. Compared to collateralized and standard cryptocurrency-based loans, NFT lending has the potential for higher returns. In NFT lending, borrowers secure loans by locking NFT assets as collateral.

NFT lending can be achieved through DeFi applications. DeFi platforms use smart contracts to manage the loan terms and interest rates of NFT loans. As NFT lending is a relatively new trend, it is expected to further develop with more individuals and capital participating, and regulatory measures potentially coming into play.

Loan volume surges

The Solana NFT lending ecosystem is rapidly developing. In the past 30 days, the loan volume has been equivalent to 50% of the Solana NFT trading volume. The main lending platforms on Solana are Sharky, Citrus, Frakt, and RainFi. Sharky dominates the lending market with a 76% market share, followed by Citrus (16%), Frakt (7%), and RainFi (1%).

As the largest NFT lending platform on Solana, Sharky has a monthly trading volume exceeding that of Magic Eden and Tensor - Sharky's monthly trading volume exceeds 1 million SOL, followed by Magic Eden's 940,000 SOL and Tensor's 850,000 SOL. Data shows that the NFT market is maturing and constantly evolving beyond trading.

Three, the narrative of Solana is increasing

Game

Compared to traditional gaming platforms like Steam, Web 3 games/blockchain games have several advantages.

In Web 3 games, players have actual ownership of in-game assets and can trade or sell them outside of the game. These assets are stored on a completely transparent and secure blockchain. In traditional games, players do not truly own their in-game items and their value is limited to the game's ecosystem. In Web 3, due to interoperability between different games and platforms, players can use their assets across multiple games - theoretically without any limitations. This is interesting because even if a game shuts down, the assets will not disappear and may still hold value in other games, which is very different from traditional games.

Blockchain is typically decentralized and not controlled by a single entity. Its decentralized nature reduces power imbalances between players and game developers, promoting fairness and transparency in gameplay. Additionally, Web 3 games empower players through the concept of "play-to-earn," where players can earn real-world value by playing games and obtaining rare assets. These assets can be traded or sold, allowing players to monetize their gaming skills and time invested. In traditional games, less than 1% of players can earn money through streaming, video editing, or becoming professional players. Web 3 games are aimed at 99% of users.

Star Atlas - A game on Solana

Star Atlas is an immersive role-playing game set in the vast and boundless universe. With the support of the Solana network, this game has entered uncharted territory and introduced an innovative play-to-earn experience.

As a player, you can choose your own path and join one of the three famous game factions in Star Atlas.

Star Atlas has a marketplace where players can buy and sell resources and services both in and outside of the game. Players can obtain items for ship missions and ownership of land for mining operations in the virtual world. Star Atlas aims not only to create an immersive gaming experience, but also to build a thriving economy on top of blockchain technology.

Star Atlas accounts for over 5% of the daily trading volume on the entire Solana blockchain. Considering the current bear market in the cryptocurrency industry and the limited number of new participants, this achievement is even more impressive. Star Atlas has already cultivated a strong and dedicated community, which may experience significant growth in the next bull market cycle. The established core community holds immense value and is a crucial asset for the game's future expansion and success.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence systems can store and share data on the blockchain because it provides better data security and privacy. The blockchain creates the necessary environment for transparency and accountability, making the output of artificial intelligence more trustworthy. In addition, the blockchain can incentivize data sharing and collaboration through tokenization and reward mechanisms, just as it already exists in other use cases.

Although artificial intelligence may become one of the main driving factors for the adoption of blockchain, most blockchains are either too expensive or lack the flexible infrastructure to support strong demand and activity, or both.