The siloed liquidity of blockchains has become a nuisance for users trying to explore the multi-chain universe.
A number of bridges have emerged to serve this critical need.
How does the bridging landscape look like today?
Let’s find out:
2/ Foreword
For this comparative analysis, only multi-chain bridges are included, in a period from January to May 2023. Also, native bridges exclusively between L2s and Ethereum are not analyzed.
3/ Ethereum makes up 58% of DeFi TVL
The total TVL in DeFi is $47.6B, with Ethereum making up for $27.8B of it.
As the blockchain with the highest liquidity, other networks will seek to draw a portion of the liquidity to themselves.
4/ Total bridged volume is increasing
Bridging solutions have facilitated an average daily volume of $225M, representing less than 1% of Ethereum’s total TVL.
Let’s dive in to the analysis:
5/ Stargate has facilitated 42.9% of total bridged volume
Stargate is the most used bridge, with an average of $42.4M in bridged volume.
Next comes Multichain at 38.5%, with an average of $38M.
6/ Stargate dominates in unique users and transactions
Stargate contributes to 82.5% of transactions and 64.3% of unique users, averaging 68k transactions and 17k users daily.
It is followed by Multichain with 7k transactions and 3k users, an almost 90% decrease from the leader
7/ Multichain has facilitated an average of $5.3k in transaction value
On the lower end of the spectrum, Stargate saw $619 in average transaction value.
This metric, paired with the number of users, suggests that Stargate is the go-to bridge for the average user.
8/ Multichain has generated a total of $3.5M in fees
Multichain averages $23.2k in daily fees, contributing to 27.8% of the total fees generated.
They are closely followed by Stargate with $3.4M of total fees generated, with an average of $22.7k daily fees.
9/ Stargate has collected an average of 0.0005$ per $1 transferred value
This amounts to a 0.05% fee on every transaction, and is the lowest among all bridges.
Hop Protocol, on the other hand, is the highest one at an average of 0.31% fees.
10/ Musings
As the cross-chain future comes into fruition, users will be drawn to bridges that supports the greatest number of assets and chains while charging the lowest fees.
In this aspect, Multichain is well-positioned, as it leads in number of supported assets and chains.
11/ However, user and transaction metrics indicate that Stargate is currently the most popular bridge to use, facilitating the largest transfer volume for the greatest number of users.
Stargate’s popularity could be due to users gaining exposure for a potential LayerZero airdrop
12/
In conclusion, Stargate, leading in bridged volume and user base with its low-fee structure, is well-positioned to dominate the growing multi-chain landscape.
As DeFi evolves, bridging will become increasingly important and will be vital in shaping the multi-chain future.
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We're excited to put out our report on the Bitcoin L2 landscape.
We believe some of these projects are worth paying attention to given the amount of idle capital on Bitcoin, their potential for yield generation, and the possibility of investment opportunities.
Of the projects with existing tokens, we highlight $STX (@Stacks) and $SYS (@syscoin), both of which have traded as beta to bitcoin and have significantly outperformed BTC YTD.
For newer projects, we begin by discussing @MerlinLayer2, which is live on mainnet and has so far attracted $3.8B in staking investments in the form of Bitcoin and Ethereum-native assets, including BRC20s and ordinal NFTs.
$131M worth of $CRV is at risk of liquidation if the price drops by 35%.
The Curve Founder has borrowed $110M in stablecoins against all his $CRV - 50% of the circulating supply.
This could have severe implications for DeFi, with lending protocols at risk of accruing bad debt
2/ Given these risks, new deposits and loans have been paused on Aave V2.
This action, along with an active governance proposal to freeze $CRV assets on Aave V2, aim to limit further risk exposure and mitigate potential damages due to market liquidity concerns.
3/ The current buy-side liquidity across ETH and stablecoins is only $51M, just 42% of the liquidatable amount on Aave and FraxLend combined.
LSDfi - the next Lego on top of DeFi composability
As $ETH staking infrastructure matures and users get increasingly comfortable holding and earning with $ETH in its staked form, it is time to look forward to the next step in DeFi composability - LSDfi.
Let’s explore:
2/ Following Lido V2, the interest in staked $ETH remains strong.
Currently, LSDs sum up to nearly 48% of the 18.8M $ETH staked to date.
3/ Given the expectation of continued staked $ETH growth, various protocols have emerged to serve this pool of capital that would potentially be seeking out more utility and yield.
While not comprehensive, below are protocols we currently find notable within the LSDfi category.