Today we continue to look at the Messari2025 large-scale comprehensive report. Last time we talked about BTC and ETH. Next, we will continue to look at the SOL section, other L1 and infrastructure sections, and see what inspiration they can give us.
SOL
Review of 2024 - Technical Updates:
1. A lightweight version of a new software, called "Frankendancer", was launched. Developed by Jump Trading, Firedancer is a high-performance verification client for the Solana blockchain that aims to improve transaction processing speed and network scalability (theoretically up to 1,000,000 TPS). The client will be released gradually in a phased manner, and this initial release only supports changes at the network layer. Currently, the runtime still relies on the existing Agave client, which means that the bottleneck of the core client software will not be fully resolved until Firedancer is fully implemented.
2. Token Extensions is part of Solana’s new SPL standard, which aims to provide developers with more configuration possibilities. This feature was released in the first quarter and was quickly adopted on the mainnet. For example, PayPal’s PYUSD adopted this new standard, especially for applications that focus on confidential transfers.
3. Helius Labs and Light Protocol collaborated in 2024 to develop a solution - ZK Compression, which can compress multiple account states into a single on-chain account. Such an operation significantly reduces the cost of operations such as large-scale account minting. For example, research by Helius co-founder Mert Mumtaz found that the cost of conducting an airdrop of 1 million addresses dropped from nearly $260,000 to $50,000.
4.Solana’s L2, some application teams have begun to develop structures similar to L2, called Network Extensions, such as Zeta Market’s upcoming L2 solution Bullet.
Outlook for 2025
The full Firedancer implementation is expected to be completed in 2025, which will significantly increase the client diversity of the network. In theory, this diversity will increase the liveness and security of the network by reducing reliance on a single client codebase.
The first Solana L2s are expected to launch next year. These L2s could impact Solana’s development roadmap and push development more aggressively toward Network Extensions.
Currently, SOL's L2 has launched a sonic, so it may ignite SOL's L2 ecosystem in the future, and may also differentiate the value of SOL (similar to ETH).
Sol Ecosystem
Projects like Jupiter, Tensor, Kamino, Drift, and Parcl have airdropped over $1 billion to their communities. This massive wealth effect has had a ripple effect through the ecosystem, driving a surge in DeFi participation, growing total value locked (TVL) from $1.5 billion at the beginning of the year to over $9 billion today. At the same time, core DeFi infrastructure has matured, with lending platforms integrating new stablecoins and on-chain derivatives beginning to gain traction. Stablecoin issuance has also soared, from $1.8 billion to nearly $5 billion, further enriching the network’s liquidity base.
The rise of DePIN
One of my favorite areas to focus on this year is DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network), and Solana is at the core of this field. In August 24, Solana is the first-layer blockchain with the most DePIN applications deployed, with 78 projects deployed on the Solana network, compared to 74 on Ethereum. Leading DePIN projects (such as Helium, Render, Hivemapper, and a growing number of GPU networks such as io.net, Nosana, Shaga, and Kuzco, etc.) have chosen Solana.
Speculation and retail boom
Solana is also positioned as a speculative playground, especially in terms of memecoin trading. The seamless user experience of the ecosystem wallet, coupled with platforms like pump.fun and Moonshot, makes it easier to both issue and trade tokens.
Outlook and trends for 2025, here are a few key points:
1. MetaDAOs prediction market driven by governance framework
2. Energy DePIN protocols (such as Energy Networks)
3. Rome Protocol’s shared sequencer
4. After the U.S. presidential election, multiple SOL spot ETF applications submitted by VanEck, Bitwise and 21Shares indicate that the market demand for ETF products based on SOL assets is growing.
Other L1 and infrastructure articles
Three public chains are mainly mentioned here, namely Sui, Aptos and TON. Currently, the TVL of these public chains exceeds 1 billion US dollars, which shows that developers and users are still very confident in the high-performance alternatives to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Sui launched the Mysteciti upgraded consensus mechanism, while Aptos launched the ambitious Raptr proposal.
Main projects in the past 25 years:
1.Monad universal, high-throughput "monolithic" L1, theoretical TPS exceeds 10,000
2. There is also Berachain. While most other L1s focus primarily on performance, Berachain focuses on coordinating incentives between validators, applications, and users through its novel liquidity proof consensus mechanism.
L2 article, summarizes 3 L2 trends
1. The application outgrows the capabilities of its L1 and chooses to roll its own L2
Well-known Ethereum protocols are beginning to launch their own dedicated Layer 2 environments to overcome the limitations of traditional Layer 1 infrastructure. Frax, a stablecoin protocol on Ethereum, launched Fraxtal, an L2 designed to improve performance and generate additional income for FXS holders. Recently, Uniswap launched its long-awaited Unichain, which aims to enhance scalability, integrate decentralized liquidity, and potentially return MEV value to users and developers. Both Fraxtal and Unichain are built on the Optimism technology stack.
Launching a custom L2 can bring significant benefits to your application. By customizing transaction ordering, applications can effectively reduce MEV risk, ensure fairer transaction ordering and reduce vulnerability to extraction attacks. This tailored approach also optimizes token economics, enabling applications to design economic models that precisely match their unique needs, enhancing value capture and providing more control over transaction fees and incentives.
2. Next-generation virtual machines
The most notable launches this year have been Eclipse and Movement — the first L2 implementations of the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) and Move VM architectures in the Ethereum ecosystem, respectively. The two projects differ significantly in their approach: Eclipse relies on a high-performance, centralized sorter that could eventually surpass Solana’s throughput at scale, while Movement is focused on seeding a multi-L2 environment driven by its own shared sorting network.
3.L2 design space becomes larger
The next generation of Layer 2 faces fierce competition. Take MegaETH as an example. The protocol adopts a centralized sorter design in pursuit of unprecedented scale. MegaETH aims to achieve 100,000+ TPS and millisecond block times, aiming to surpass decentralized L2, which faces inherent limitations due to consensus overhead and network limitations.
MegaETH leverages the security of Ethereum L1 to mitigate censorship issues through the EigenDA data availability solution, mandatory transaction inclusion mechanism, and escape channels.
Taiko, on the other hand, is a Rollup based on Rollup, focused on bringing Rollup closer to L1. Sorting out integration directly with L1 brings Rollup closer to Ethereum in concept and architecture, and eliminates some of the “parasitic L2” concerns shared by critics of the Ethereum roadmap.
Other infrastructure articles
- Interoperability
1. Optimism’s Superchain is positioned as the largest “aggregation cluster” on Ethereum, with Coinbase, Kraken, Sony, Uniswap and others launching L2 on their networks.
2. Intent protocols (such as Across) utilize off-chain participants called “resolvers” to facilitate cross-chain interactions on behalf of users.
3. Espresso and other shared ordering infrastructure are another way to improve inter-L2 composability.
4.Omni Network is a Layer-1 blockchain secured by ETH re-staked through Eigenlayer.
-Chain Abstraction
Chain abstraction is expected to become one of the most noteworthy trends in the coming year. We have previously talked about the account abstraction Biconomy.
ZK Technology
Polygon's Agglayer is a proof aggregation layer between Ethereum rollups and L2 execution environments, scheduled to go live in early 2025. It sits on top of a single, canonical Ethereum bridge contract and aggregates ZK proofs to ensure that cross-chain transactions are executed in dependency order, meaning that connected chains can effectively amortize the cost of ZK proof verification across all connected chains. If widely adopted, AggLayer has the potential to unify the traditionally fragmented L1 and L2, but there are questions about the motivations for blockchains to choose to join this structure compared to rolling their own rollup cluster.
The real winners in the infrastructure space will be those who can translate technological advances into a unified user experience.
Tomorrow we will bring you the DEFI and AI chapters in the report, both of which are hot topics, so don’t miss it.