The Tezos blockchain ecosystem demonstrated substantial growth across multiple sectors in the first quarter of 2024, according to a recent report by Messari.
Per the report, Tezos observed impressive growth in gaming, development, financial metrics, and network usage. Notably, the developments spotlighted in the report were an obvious testament of Tezos’ expanding ecosystem.
Tezos Gaming Sector Growth and Network Upgrades
For one, the gaming sector commanded significant growth. Data confirmed that active gaming addresses increased by 558% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), reaching 97,000 in Q1 2024.
Further, citing on-chain data, Messari confirmed that the social gaming application Coin Blast was particularly successful, peaking at 36,000 active users in January. The strategy sports game Cricket Stars also gained traction with 8,000 peak active users in March.
Meanwhile, Tezos maintained its position as a top blockchain for developers, ranking 30th and boasting 250 developers by the end of 2023. The network successfully implemented the Oxford 2 protocol upgrade, which introduced private rollups and improved staking protocols.
In addition, the Paris protocol upgrade, which was slated for launch this month, is expected to further enhance the network with 10-second block times, adaptive issuance, and a new Data Availability Layer (DAL). Notably, Paris launched on June 4.
The Paris protocol was adopted by bakers through Tezos’ on-chain governance mechanism and activated on Mainnet on June 4 at 21:29:25 UTC.
Keep scrolling to find out what this new upgrade is bringing you: 👇
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— Tezos (@tezos) June 4, 2024
Messari also called attention to Etherlink, a non-custodial, EVM-compatible layer-2 network powered by Tezos Smart Rollups. The chain is set for its mainnet beta launch in Q2 2024. This development promises to attract Ethereum-based developers by offering a fast, low-cost, and secure platform.
Financial, Market and Network Growth
On the financial aspect, Tezos’ market capitalization crossed the $1 billion mark in Q1 2024, reaching approximately $1.4 billion. This reflected a 50% increase QoQ. This growth was partially driven by the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in January, which triggered interest from traditional investors.
Tezos (XTZ) saw a 38% price increase in the first quarter of the year, closing the quarter at $1.4. Also, despite a 16% decrease in transaction fees collected (totaling 19,000 XTZ), the increased price of XTZ led to a 16% rise in the USD value of these fees, amounting to $22,500.
Meanwhile, on network metrics, Tezos recorded a yearly high in monthly active addresses in March 2024, with over 75,000 unique addresses interacting with the network. The average monthly active addresses rose by 37% QoQ to 70,000. New addresses also saw significant growth, with an average of 44,000 new addresses each month, up 50% QoQ.
Smart contract calls increased by 17% QoQ, reaching 4.6 million in Q1 2024. Total network activity, encompassing both contract calls and transactions, grew by 8% to 8.7 million interactions. Per the report, this rise in activity was driven by applications built on Tezos rather than simple XTZ transfers.
Tezos Ecosystem and Development Highlights
Several new projects and partnerships bolstered the Tezos ecosystem. The Tezos Foundation granted funds to various infrastructure projects, including Sign-in-with-Tezos and Blockscout. Tezos developers also demonstrated solutions like biometric signing on Android and new UX improvements for ticket transfers to smart contracts.
The ecosystem saw notable growth in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, with total value locked (TVL) in USD increasing by 28% QoQ to over $78 million. Moreover, Etherlink’s upcoming launch is expected to facilitate the deployment of EVM-compatible protocols on Tezos, attracting developers and liquidity from other networks.
