Onchain activity swung sharply over the past year, with several major networks seeing big drops in users and transactions — but the story is one of shifting hotspots, not wholesale collapse, according to Nansen data. Quick takeaways - Nansen found 11 blockchains with year-over-year declines in active addresses. - Biggest falls: Ronin (-70% active addresses) and Telegram-linked TON (-47%). - Bitcoin’s active addresses slipped 7.2%, with transactions down about 22%. - Some L2s cooled after airdrop-driven frenzies; ZKsync’s transactions plunged roughly 90%. - Not all chains faded: Ethereum’s base layer saw a 25% rise in active addresses and a >20% jump in transactions; Base and Optimism also grew. Where activity fell — and why - Ronin: Once buoyed by Pixels, a game that migrated from Polygon in H2 2023, Ronin surged from roughly 20,000 daily users to become one of the most active chains. By December 2024 Pixels had about 300,000 daily users (DappRadar), but the game’s decline sent Ronin’s activity tumbling — illustrating how dependent some chains are on single blockbusters. - Layer-2 airdrops: ZKsync opened its token claim in June 2024, with nearly 700,000 wallets eligible. The drop drew criticism over Sybil filtering and, per Nansen, more than 40% of top airdrop wallets immediately sold allocations. ZKsync’s transactions later fell ~90%. Scroll showed a similar post-airdrop cooldown after its October 2024 distribution. - TON: After explosive growth driven by Telegram mini-games (notably Hamster Kombat), TON’s usage cooled. Hamster Kombat reportedly drew 239 million users in three months, with 130 million qualifying for its airdrop. TON’s active addresses peaked at ~2.5 million per day on Sept. 30 but then slipped, leaving a 47% drop in active addresses and a 51% decline in transactions year over year. Where activity held up or grew - Ethereum base layer: Active addresses up 25% and transactions up over 20%, even as debates continue about the rollup-centric roadmap and liquidity fragmentation across L2s. - Arbitrum: Active addresses fell modestly (3%), but transaction volume rose 36% to about 734.5 million — surpassing Ethereum’s ~507 million transactions. Arbitrum also captured tokenized assets activity, including 500 U.S. stocks tokenized by Robinhood. - Base and Optimism: Both L2s posted increases in active addresses and transactions. Base stands out for never issuing a native token or airdrop; growth there has come from memecoin interest, AI-linked dApps and DEX activity. - Solana and BNB Chain: Solana logged the most active addresses (>1 billion) and a 66% increase in active addresses year over year, despite its token price falling. Solana’s daily active addresses peaked above 9 million on Oct. 22, 2024 during memecoin mania, and settled to 2–3 million daily users by December — still higher than pre-boom levels. BNB Chain posted a 159% jump in active addresses, with its token price rising alongside. What this means - Short-term drivers matter. Many of the steepest declines came where usage was concentrated in a handful of apps, airdrops or viral moments. When incentives or hype fade, onchain metrics can drop fast. - That doesn’t mean structural failure. In several cases — Solana, BNB Chain, Base — surges brought lasting users, liquidity and apps that continued to sustain activity beyond the hype cycle. - Onchain activity is fluid. Usage shifts between networks as applications migrate, incentive programs wind down and communities chase new opportunities. Year-over-year comparisons can therefore be distorted by one-off spikes and ephemeral trends. Bottom line: the blockchain map is dynamic. Some networks are still proving whether they can convert fleeting attention into long-term, diversified usage, while others are showing signs of more durable growth despite the sector’s boom-and-bust rhythms. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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