Onchain exercise declined sharply on a number of main networks, based on Nansen information, with 11 blockchains posting drops in energetic addresses in the previous 12 months.
Ronin fell the most at 70%, whereas Bitcoin registered a 7.2% decline. A number of Ethereum layer-2 networks made the listing.
Nansen information additionally confirmed drops in transaction exercise throughout lots of the similar networks. ZKsync recorded certainly one of the steepest declines, with transactions falling 90%.
In the meantime, Ethereum’s base layer recorded a 25% enhance in energetic addresses and greater than a 20% rise in transactions, whilst debate continued round Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap and issues over liquidity fragmentation throughout layer-2 networks.
Networks with the largest utilization declines
Pixels is a well-liked recreation that migrated to Ronin from Polygon in the second half of 2023. At the time, Ronin had roughly 20,000 each day energetic customers earlier than Pixels’ arrival drove a sharp increase in activity, briefly making Ronin the second-most energetic chain by each day customers.
By December 2024, Pixels registered round 300,000 each day energetic customers, based on DappRadar. The sport’s reputation has since declined, and Ronin’s onchain exercise has fallen alongside it, displaying the community’s reliance on hit video games.
A number of Ethereum layer-2 networks additionally skilled a decline in utilization as exercise tied to airdrops cooled. ZKsync’s token airdrop declare opened in June 2024. The community mentioned nearly 700,000 wallets were eligible whereas keeping off criticism of its Sybil filtering. Nansen information confirmed that greater than 40% of the prime airdrop wallets immediately sold their allocations. Scroll additionally appeared on the listing following its October 2024 airdrop, after which onchain exercise slowed down.
Arbitrum noticed energetic addresses fall by 3%, although its roughly 31 million customers nonetheless ranked it amongst the prime 10 networks by exercise. The Ethereum rollup performed its airdrop in 2023, and its transaction quantity rose 36% over the previous 12 months to about 734.5 million, beating Ethereum’s 507 million transactions. Arbitrum drew activity from tokenized assets, together with 500 US shares stamped on the community by Robinhood.
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Base and Optimism stood out amongst Ethereum layer-2 networks. Each posted will increase in energetic addresses and transaction volumes. Base doesn’t have a local token and has by no means performed an airdrop. Onchain exercise rose alongside curiosity in areas resembling memecoins, AI-related purposes and decentralized exchanges.
Solana recorded the most energetic addresses in the trade with greater than 1 billion, adopted by Tron and Ethereum. BNB Chain posted a 159% enhance in energetic addresses, whereas Bitcoin was the solely community in the prime 5 to file a decline, alongside a 22% drop in transactions.
What the declines do and don’t present
The info confirmed little constant relationship between onchain utilization and token costs. Solana’s value fell over the previous 12 months regardless of a 66% enhance in energetic addresses, whereas BNB’s (BNB) token value rose alongside elevated community exercise.
The year-over-year declines don’t essentially level to terminal issues for the networks concerned. Onchain exercise can swing sharply as purposes migrate, incentive applications wind down or customers shift between chains, notably amongst newer networks nonetheless establishing their core use instances.
Telegram-linked blockchain The Open Community (TON) additionally recorded a 47% drop in energetic addresses and a 51% decline in transactions, a reversal that adopted outsized progress in 2024. Telegram-based mini-games drove a lot of that earlier exercise, drawing in customers past the platform’s typical crypto-native viewers.
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Hamster Kombat was amongst the most outstanding examples. The tapping-based recreation lowered the barrier to entry by easy mechanics and drew heavy participation from customers anticipating a future token airdrop. In line with Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, the viral recreation attracted 239 million users within three months, with greater than 130 million qualifying for its airdrop in late September.
Nansen information exhibits that TON’s energetic addresses peaked at roughly 2.5 million per day on Sept. 30. Exercise has since fallen again as engagement tied to Hamster Kombat cooled, underscoring how short-lived surges can distort year-over-year comparisons.
Just a few chains retained utilization after hype
The previous 12 months’s blockchain information exhibits that onchain exercise shifts shortly between networks quite than remaining anchored to any single chain. Utilization fell most sharply on blockchains the place exercise had been concentrated round a small variety of purposes, incentive applications or viral moments.
At the similar time, these declines don’t robotically sign broader ecosystem failure. In a number of instances, exercise cooled after durations of outsized progress, highlighting how year-over-year comparisons may be distorted by hype cycles, airdrops or short-lived purposes.
Solana provides a helpful distinction. Whereas memecoin-driven exercise boomed all through 2024 and early 2025 earlier than cooling towards the finish of the 12 months, the surge additionally introduced in customers, liquidity and purposes that continued to assist the community.
Solana’s each day energetic addresses peaked above 9 million on Oct. 22, 2024, throughout the top of memecoin buying and selling. By December, each day customers fluctuated between 2 million and 3 million. Whereas that marked a pointy pullback from peak ranges, exercise remained constantly increased than earlier than the increase.
A lot of the previous 12 months’s onchain exercise decline was pushed by short-term profit-seeking, however networks resembling Solana, BNB Chain and Base confirmed indicators of retaining utilization past viral surges, setting them other than chains that noticed sharper reversals.
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