Source: OKX

Public blockchains are becoming more pragmatic and mature.

By 2025, public blockchains may no longer be the sexy track of grand narratives, as what users truly care about is no longer throughput, the size of fundraising, or how impressive the lineup of backers is, but rather, do they have real user growth? Do they have real value on-chain? Do they have developers who can stay long-term and applications that have grown beyond the crypto community? In that year, some public blockchains have transitioned from being "talked about" to being "used," some have chosen to slow down and polish their underlying capabilities, and some have validated their long-term path through market cycles.

The "Public Blockchain Friends of OKX in 2025" is not a grand narrative retrospective, but an invitation to those on the front lines to explain what has truly been achieved this year, which judgments have been proven right, and where adjustments still need to be made—because these are the core issues that the community and users care most about. In 2025, OKX's collaboration with multiple blockchains is no longer limited to one-off integrations or events, but focuses on continuous optimization of liquidity, developer tools, and on-chain asset utility. This special feature invites core founders of blockchain ecosystems that have collaborated with OKX to share their true feelings about the collaboration: which measures have truly driven ecosystem development? What issues still need to be addressed? At the same time, it looks to the future and how both parties can translate short-term collaboration experiences into long-term value.

Optimism Holds 46.6% of Ethereum's L2 Total TVL, Stablecoin Size Exceeds $6.1 Billion

Optimism co-founder and CEO Jing Wang stated that in 2025, the adoption of enterprise blockchain has significantly increased, with Optimism becoming a core infrastructure provider for many enterprises migrating large-scale settlements, consumer-facing applications, and institutional systems to the blockchain. Over the past year, the Optimism ecosystem has supported 14.1% of daily cryptocurrency transactions (up from 6.3% in 2024), and now accounts for 62.1% of all Ethereum L2 activity through Superchain (previously 39.8%). Additionally, the network processes approximately 24.1 million transactions per day while reducing median fees by 99%, nearly bringing costs to zero for the vast majority of users.

These performance improvements have unlocked new economic activities for partners, including consumer-grade applications like Base, supporting millions of micro-transactions and exchange-driven fund flows that were previously unfeasible due to high costs. Simultaneously, liquidity has also strengthened, with Optimism holding 46.6% of Ethereum's total L2 TVL, and the stablecoin size of the entire ecosystem reaching $6.1 billion.

Overall, enterprises are increasingly viewing Optimism's shared, production-ready infrastructure as a reliable cornerstone for scaling real-world blockchain applications.

By 2025, OKX will migrate XLayer to the OP Stack, marking one of Optimism's most significant developments in the enterprise space. OKX has validated a point that many operators are realizing: scalable open-source infrastructure is becoming crucial for operating large-scale financial systems on-chain. This move reflects a broader trend of positioning layer-two networks as core operational infrastructure.

Collaborating with the OKX team demonstrates that exchanges and infrastructure providers can align around shared standards, predictable scalability, and long-term ecosystem growth. Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities to unlock additional value with OKX through deeper collaboration within the broader OP Stack ecosystem, whether through shared liquidity channels, a more unified developer environment, or exploring future opportunities within the superchain framework.

Base Gas Fees Below 1 Cent, Over $13 Billion in On-Chain Assets

Base Chain founder Jesse Pollak stated that within just two years of its launch, it has achieved a throughput of 150 million gas per second (150 mgas/s), a block confirmation time of 200 milliseconds, gas fees below 1 cent, providing a home for over $13 billion in assets. Jesse is proud of the progress Base's application has made. By integrating social, transactional, payment, and application functionalities, it has redefined how the world accesses the blockchain. Since the release of the beta version, over a million users have joined. Through this application, Base has developed and released various tools to empower creators.

OKX understands Base's vision. Through the support offered by the OKX wallet and DEX, they have played a significant role in taking Base to a global audience. By directly integrating Base assets into the wallet and providing deep liquidity support on the DEX for communities like Zora, Virtuals, and Clanker, they have created the right stage for developers. We appreciate their support in bringing the blockchain future to tens of millions of users worldwide. It's going to be even more exciting in 2026.

Unichain Daily Trading Volume Exceeds $7.5 Billion

The Uniswap Labs team shared several key milestones they achieved in 2025 with us. Unichain officially launched in April 2025, and since its launch, its total value locked (TVL) has exceeded $9 billion at one point, with daily average DEX trading volumes surpassing $7.5 billion during the summer.

In terms of daily DEX trading volume, Unichain has now firmly established itself in the top tier of Layer 2 networks. Despite being launched for only about 9 months, it has successfully solidified its leading position in mainstream Layer 2 networks this year and is expected to see further growth next year.

In terms of partnerships, OKX has integrated the Uniswap Trading API into OKX Wallet's "Swap" feature. This API supports OKX users to swap assets across 7 blockchains, utilizing both the Uniswap classic route (covering v2, v3, and v4 liquidity) and the UniswapX route, aggregating multi-source liquidity through an RFQ (Request for Quote) mechanism. In terms of annual performance, as of now, there have been over 70,000 completed trades, with a total trading volume exceeding $250 million, and an average exchange size of over $3,500 per transaction.

Aptos Launches Industry-Redefining Products like Shelby

Aptos Labs Co-founder and CEO Avery Ching stated that 2025 is a year of reboot for Aptos, taking this opportunity to retrospect lessons learned, rebuild purposefully, and lay a solid foundation for a global trading engine that will be a core driver of the next stage of open and fair finance. This engine will span market cycles and introduce industry-redefining products such as Shelby, Decibel, and Namespaces.

The positive feedback from investors, partners, and the community is inspiring, and collaborations with like-minded partners such as OKX — whose global influence and mission alignment inject powerful momentum into the ecosystem — have played a crucial role. Aptos is committed to expanding the reach of digital finance, accelerating its adoption, and making digital finance a part of daily life for individuals and institutions worldwide."

In 2025, the Crypto industry has undergone many changes, and for public chains and L2, the risks and challenges are becoming greater. As each chain chooses to solidify itself, cultivate internal strength, truly polish its products with patience, the high-speed road of the blockchain industry is being constructed. We just need more time to make this broad avenue more bustling.

Sei's Active Independent Wallet Count Exceeds 13 Million

Sei founder Jeff stated that in 2025, Sei has established strong partnerships with top traditional financial institutions such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, Apollo Global Management, and Laser Digital. And with Sei's listing on the Robinhood platform, another significant milestone has been achieved.

On-chain activity surged, and Sei has become the leading Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain by independent active wallet count (reaching 13.67 million in October 2025) and has surpassed 4 billion cumulative transactions. Our ecosystem continues to thrive, with Yei and Metarena successfully conducting Token Generation Events (TGEs), and applications such as Takaralend, Monaco, Pit.Finance, and Kindred receiving widespread attention. Looking ahead, we are building the fastest EVM ever — Sei Giga, aimed at setting a new performance benchmark for blockchain infrastructure.

Sei's collaboration with OKX has greatly increased Sei's visibility and community influence in Asia, especially in Japan, where we successfully listed on OKX Japan (OKX Jp). Furthermore, OKX has accelerated our growth in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space through wallet promotion activities, significantly boosting our ecosystem. Moving forward, Sei will explore deeper integration with the OKX ecosystem and support the next wave of builders in the OKX community.

Sonic On-chain Transactions Surpass 100 Million, Achieving Zero Downtime

In early 2025, Sonic launched a rewards program and hosted a Decentralized Finance and Artificial Intelligence (DeFAI) hackathon to drive ecosystem vibrancy and motivate participants. In March, Sonic completed integrations with Aave and Pendle, further enhancing the DeFi infrastructure. In April and May, Sonic's Total Value Locked (TVL) reached $1 billion and introduced native USDC.e through Circle's CCTP V2, along with the launch of instant, fee-less Sonic Pay. In June, on-chain transactions surpassed 100 million, achieving zero downtime and sub-second confirmations, marking one of the fastest milestones on an EVM chain; the same month saw the completion of a $10 million strategic funding round led by Galaxy Ventures and the introduction of GSR as a market maker.

During the months of July to September, Sonic hosted the Sonic Summit 2025 in Singapore on September 29–30. In August, the second season airdrop and S-tier hackathon kicked off, and through the first governance proposal, a US entity was established to advance institutional custody with BitGo, while progressing plans for ETP/ETF and Nasdaq PIPE listings. In September, Sonic appointed Mitchell Demeter as CEO and welcomed the $25 million Resonance Security fund launched by CMCC Global. In October, Sonic initiated a $6 million $S token buyback plan; and in November, the second season airdrop concluded.

The past collaboration with OKX has been smooth and efficient. In expanding Sonic's user base, OKX has demonstrated strong execution and provided robust support. Looking ahead, we aim to deepen our cooperation in practical areas such as product integration, ecosystem growth plans, user education, and jointly organizing more offline events to help Sonic achieve sustained growth across multiple regions.

ZetaChain's Independent User Count Exceeds 11.5 Million, Transaction Volume Surpasses 223 Million

Jessie Zhang, Head of ZetaChain's Incubation and Investment Division, stated that by 2025, ZetaChain had achieved scalable development with its independent user count on the general-purpose blockchain surpassing 11.5 million and transaction volume reaching 223 million. The network expanded through strategic partnerships with Google Cloud, Deutsche Telekom, and Alibaba and added integration of several key chains including Sui and TON. On the regulatory front, ZetaChain also made progress by aligning with the Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) in Europe and receiving approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in Dubai. Moving into 2026, ZetaChain is poised to further drive the development of general-purpose blockchains and unveil a major initiative at the intersection of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.

Since the early testnet stages of ZetaChain, OKX has been an important partner. The two parties jointly launched the first Cryptopedia event, enabled OKX wallet support on ZetaChain mainnet launch day, and introduced multiple ZETA staking and reward programs for OKX users. Furthermore, our teams have jointly organized numerous community events globally, including a BTC meetup at the Token 2049 conference in Singapore, a Bitcoin Halving Celebration Party in Hong Kong, and a full-chain day event at the ETH Denver conference. Looking ahead to 2026, we look forward to deepening our partnership through the introduction of new projects to further drive the development of general-purpose blockchains and accelerate the adoption of AI-driven Web3 applications.

This article is a contributed piece and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.

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