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Blast Surpasses Cardano And Base – Here’s How Much DeFi Investors Have Locked

Blast is the latest Layer 2 network to burst into the scene in the last week and has taken the decentralized finance (DeFi) world by storm already. This network which seemingly came out of nowhere has backing from Paradigm, and as its popularity has risen, it has surpassed Base and Cardano’s Total Value Locked (TVL) in less than a week after launch.

Blast TVL Crosses $565 Million

The Blast network was officially announced on November 21 and it quickly garnered support from crypto investors. In the first day, the network saw over $81 million in crypto locked. And in two days, the figure had quickly grown above $123 million.

Despite some of the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) that has followed the launch of the network, investors have continued to bridge their assorted into it. By Sunday, November 26, the total value locked on the Blast network had officially crossed $544 million, according to data from DeFi tracker DeFiLlama.

This figure puts the network’s TVL ahead of older competitors such as Coinbase’s Base. While Blast’s TVL sits at $544 million, the Base TVL is at $338.26 million. This means that Blast’s TVL is currently 60% higher than that of Base.

In the same vein, the Blast TVL is also way ahead of that of Cardano. Presently, the Cardano TVL sits at around $330.07 million, just a little lower than Base, and around 61% lower than that of Blast.

New L2 Draws Criticism From DeFi Investors

Amid the rapid growth that Blast has enjoyed, it has also drawn criticism from DeFi investors. The concerns have ranged from security to how the network is being run. One of the most pertinent criticisms has stemmed from the fact that all of the crypto being bridged to the network will be locked until next year.

The network revealed that investors will not be able to access their locked funds until February 2024. In addition, Blast promises users yield on their Ethereum (ETH) and stablecoins being bridged to the network, but with no readily discernible way of how this yield will be earned.

Some members of the crypto community have, however, figured out that the funds were being deposited into the Lido DAO protocol. Apparently, Blast is currently earning around $1.5 million a month by depositing the bridged funds into Lido. This has further raised concerns about the growing dominance of Lido, which is headed toward 33.3% and could pose a risk for the Ethereum network.

Nevertheless, Blast continues to dominate conversations around DeFi on social media. There is now a total of 266,130 ETH locked on the network, with the expectations of an airdrop happening in 2024.

DeFi total market cap chart from Tradingview.com (Blast Cardano Base)

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Mysterious Wallet Transfers 18 Million MATIC To Coinbase – What’s Going On?

A mysterious wallet surfaced from the shadows and masterminded a significant transfer of 17,895,970 MATIC—which translates to a staggering $14.7 million—directly into Coinbase, in a crypto twist that sent shockwaves through the digital landscape.

The surge in significant transaction volume has caused the MATIC price to rise above $0.80 for the first time since July. The market capitalization of MATIC has grown by 62% during the last four weeks due to increased turnover and acquisition by whales.

MATIC Mysterious Financial Maneuver Unveiled

During this enigmatic financial maneuver, the cryptocurrency universe witnessed Polygon’s MATIC token commence a bullish journey. It became more complicated as MATIC rose above the $0.75 resistance level, only to face a strong barrier at the $0.89 support.

At the time of writing, MATIC was trading at $0.88, up 8.5% in the last 24 hours, and tallied an impressive 27% rally in the last seven days, data from CoinMarketCap shows.

The recent increase in value is occurring in conjunction with a revitalized cryptocurrency market, propelled by a rising sense of confidence surrounding Bitcoin.

Nevertheless, the increase in MATIC’s price cannot be only attributed to general market sentiment. Empirical evidence indicates that the aggregation of large investors and significant collaborations have played a crucial role in driving MATIC’s breakout.

According to IntoTheBlock, an on-chain analytics company, institutional and whale demand for the cryptocurrency space has significantly increased. In this sense, during the past 30 days, the amount of transactions involving over $100,000 has increased by 3,800% according to Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution.

Based on data provided by the analytics platform Santiment, it has been seen that large-scale investors, commonly referred to as whales, with holdings ranging from 100,000 to 10 million MATIC tokens, have accumulated an excess of 42 million more tokens during the latter part of October.

Strong Buying Activity

In a 24-hour timeframe, a total of 161 transactions involving MATIC were executed, each surpassing a value of $100,000. This notable buying activity serves as a testament to the strong desire of significant stakeholders to accumulate MATIC holdings. The accumulation of assets has had a direct impact on the favorable movement of prices.

Increased Whale Appetite

Meanwhile, Coinbase has received over 55 million Polygon [MATIC] tokens, according to three different posts made by Whale Alert on X (previously Twitter).

The transfers were coming from unidentified addresses, according to the whale tracking handle.

(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).

Featured image from Freepik

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Coinbase Driving Solana Bull Run: Will SOL 2X To $80?

Solana (SOL) is one of the top performers, looking at price action in the weekly chart. According to Kaiko, SOL’s net buying, measured via cumulative volume delta (CVD), has been led by Coinbase, one of the most active cryptocurrency exchanges in the past few trading weeks. To illustrate, since October 18, the blockchain analytics platform notes that 2.2 million SOL have been purchased, an indicator of rising demand as the broader crypto market thaws.

SOL cumulative volume delta | Source: Kaiko

Coinbase Leading The Solana Buying Wave

At over 2.2 million SOL purchased, Coinbase leads the wave of buying pressure. However, closely behind, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by client count, follows. There are around 2 million SOL bought through Binance from October 18, highlighting the role of the exchange in funneling liquidity to SOL. Even so, specific drivers forcing users to opt for Coinbase over Binance couldn’t be laid out. 

While at it, there is rising demand for SOL on Kraken. Even so, demand for SOL has been fizzling on Bybit, Upbit, and OKX over the same period. It couldn’t be ascertained why the trajectory on these exchanges has been trending lower. However, what’s clear is that all of these exchanges allow derivatives trading of multiple assets, including SOL.

When writing on November 7, SOL is a top-10 coin by market cap. Perched at seventh in the leaderboard, Solana has flipped Cardano, Dogecoin, and Tron, cementing its position considering the over $7 billion gap between the seventh and eighth projects in the market cap ranking. 

The CVD measures the difference between buying and selling volume over a period. The tool can be used to identify trends. When rising, the uptrend might continue while a falling CVD points otherwise.

SOL Trending At New 2023 Highs: Will The Uptrend Continue?

At spot levels, SOL is also changing hands at around $43, trending at around 2023 highs after breaking above the resistance level at $32 in late October. The uptrend could continue, considering the surging interest Solana continues to garner. This may push the coin 2X to $80, a critical resistance, looking at the candlestick arrangement in the weekly chart. 

Solana price trending upwards on the daily chart | Source: SOLUSDT on Binance, TradingView

This demand is primarily because of improving investor confidence and Solana Labs’ decision to roll out new features and strike strategic partnerships, pulling more capital to SOL. Rising CVD could suggest that institutions might be eying SOL, aiming to ride the uptrend.

On November 6, the FTX estate transferred 750,000 SOL to Binance and Kraken. Although it couldn’t be verified that they sold, SOL prices retraced from recent highs. FTX, the defunct crypto exchange, controlled over $1.1 billion worth of SOL, and the estate manager has been gradually selling the coin and other crypto assets to repay creditors.