Blast, an Ethereum layer 2 scaling network developed by the founders of popular NFT marketplace Blur, celebrated its mainnet launch on Friday. This pivotal moment opened the floodgates to billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency funds that users had previously frozen for staking and airdrop rewards.
With the help of this launch, users who were hoping to receive rewards by staking and participating in airdrop campaigns were able to unlock nearly $2.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets.
Ethereum Rises: Market Rises with 12% Gain
Conceptualized by Tieshun Roquerre, the visionary behind NFT marketplace Blur, Blast is working to introduce a unique yield framework for both Ether and stablecoins, boasting an attractive interest rate of 4% for the former and 5% for the latter. .
Blast mainnet is now live
Early Access users can connect to mainnet to use Blast-native Dapps that don’t exist anywhere elseš pic.twitter.com/mt5dJOADMp
ā Blast (@Blast_L2) February 29, 2024
As reported on the platform’s website, the platform’s initial release garnered a massive community base of over 180,000 members and a total value exceeding $2.3 billion.
The program aims to improve the scalability and transaction efficiency of the Ethereum network. This comes at a time when the cryptocurrency market is seeing significant gains. Over the past week, the price of Ethereum has risen 12%, mainly driven by Bitcoin, hitting an all-time high of around $64,000 on Wednesday.
ETH price up in the last week. Source: Coingecko
While some Blast users are withdrawing money into the cryptocurrency market, which has seen significant gains almost everywhere since the end of last year, others are investing in the network to take advantage of recently launched apps and protocols, as well as ongoing staking rewards and airdrops. I’m leaving money behind. profit.
Blast platform faces criticism despite success
With Blast’s network live, the platform’s total funding value has fallen below $1.9 billion, according to on-chain data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. The change could be a sign of a trend of consumers taking their money out to profit from the larger cryptocurrency market, which has been on the rise since late last year.
Ethereum is now trading at $3417.8. Chart: TradingView.com
However, in May, Blast will begin offering āairdrop pointsā in conjunction with new token launches, which will help keep people interested and active on the network.
Arnold Toh, blockchain research fellow at The Block, said Blast had already amassed more than $2 billion in TVL prior to its mainnet debut, putting it in second place behind L2 heavyweights such as Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet.
Not everything about Blast’s debut was without its critics. Cryptocurrency traders and developers alike have questioned Blast’s strategy of introducing a bridge that would prevent customers from withdrawing their money for months, as well as the way the incentive model is presented.
According to Roquerre, also known as Pacman, the returns are āunsustainableā and come from the MakerDAO DeFi protocol and the Lido liquid staking protocol.
Paradigm, the venture capital firm that co-led Blast’s $20 million seed funding round, had reservations about the project’s presentation and implementation, according to Dan Robinson, head of research and general partner at Paradigm.
Despite these objections, Roquerre accepted Paradigm’s input, but insisted that the Blast team make the final decision on release on its own.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView