Once the second-largest Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network, Blast has fallen off significantly as users continue to flee the ecosystem for greener pastures.
The chain‘s DeFi total value locked (TVL) peaked at $2.2 billion in June 2024, just a month before its highly anticipated token generation event (TGE). Blast’s TVL now stands at just $65 million, a 97% decline from its peak and a 30% drop over just the last month.
Blast TVL - DeFiLlama
Blast launched with a controversial deposit vault in November 2023, where users locked capital on the chain to earn points. The mainnet launched four months later in February 2024, with Blast unveiling its farming system, which featured a points system that rewarded onchain TVL, and a Blast Gold system, which was distributed to users by native protocols.
The chain became a hotbed for airdrop farmers seeking a repeat of the highly successful Blur airdrop from February 2023, which was also spearheaded by lead developer PacMan and funded by investment firm Paradigm.
However, the airdrop left many users disappointed after the BLAST token opened at a $2.9 billion valuation, falling short of many farmers' and analysts $5 - $10 billion projections. Activity and TVL on the chain quickly declined, with Blast losing 60% of its TVL less than two months after the airdrop.
The BLAST token has performed just as poorly, down 91% from its all-time high and currently changing hands at a $250 million fully diluted valuation (FDV).
BLAST Market Cap - CoinGecko
Daily active users (DAU) have also plummeted, and are down to just 3,500 according to TokenTerminal, after peaking at 77,000 shortly after the airdrop. Meanwhile, leading L2s Base and Arbitrum manage roughly 1.3 million and 400,000 DAU, respectively, but it is also presumed that a portion of this activity can be attributed to bots.