As 2024 comes to a close, CoinGecko has shared its roundup of the most popular blockchain ecosystems of the year. They looked at traffic and investor interest, and guess what? Solana topped the list, followed by Base, Ethereum, and TON.
Solana and Base Together Capture 56% of Global Traffic
When measuring the global traffic shares of the top 20 blockchain ecosystems, Solana stands out, holding an impressive 38.79% of the total traffic. Base isn’t far behind with 16.81%. Together, they account for nearly 56% of all traffic as of November 11.
It’s important to note that CoinGecko only included ecosystems with actively listed coins and a non-zero percentage of traffic in their study.
The findings show that Solana has maintained its top spot in the blockchain rankings from Q1 2024 through the end of the year. A big reason for Solana’s popularity? The renewed interest in meme coins. Many users love Solana for its speed, reliability, and low transaction fees.
Base also benefited from the rise in meme coin trading. However, while Solana saw a 10% drop in investor interest from Q1 to Q4, Base experienced a fivefold increase! Even with this shift, Base kept its second-place ranking in global traffic shares.
On the other hand, Ethereum dropped to third place, now holding a 10.8% share of investor interest. Since the first quarter, Ethereum’s traffic shares have decreased by 1.9%. This decline likely stems from Ethereum’s established status, making it less of a hot topic for investors.
Interest in Ethereum also spreads across the layer 2 networks built on it, dividing investor focus further.
Overall, the top 20 blockchain ecosystems accounted for 97% of investor interest, while the remaining 3% was spread across 47 other blockchains.
The Impact of Meme Coins on Traffic Growth
A significant factor in Solana’s success is the popularity of Pump.fun, a meme coin launchpad based on Solana. From January to October 2024, this platform launched over 2.5 million SOL tokens. As of November 14, it has issued 3.26 million meme coins.
According to Dune, Pump.fun’s daily revenue has skyrocketed to about $2.8 million at the time of writing.
“Your utility projects are getting outperformed by meme coins. Ethereum is getting outperformed by Solana. Bitcoin is outperforming the entire market. Be realistic and you’ll win this cycle. Trade the trends and narratives,” said a well-known crypto influencer on X.