Incentive Programs and Cross-Chain Transfers Lead to Higher Token Values

by 99Crypto

Tokens based on both L1 and L2 got more valuable during the month of September. The overall value locked into related DeFi platforms also went up.

All of this happened due primarily to two factors. First, there were incentive programs worth millions of dollars. Second, cross-chain transfers were quite easy.

Competition has gotten more active between L1 smart contract platforms in the last few months. This has resulted from developers and traders extending their embrace of alternatives to the ETH network, especially ones that feature lower fees and quicker transactions.

Ether's price has held somewhat flat in the last four weeks, whereas competitors, including Fantom and Solana, saw prices rise more than double in the same interval.

Avalanche, Terra, and Fantom have all seen rallies, and each launched various funding incentives in the multiple millions of dollars. These incentives are intended to draw in new investors and developers. They also hope to add fresh liquidity into their respective corners of the industry.

So many initiatives launching at once drove new activity, as cross-chain transfers happened from Ethereum sources into L1 projects. Solana seems to have enjoyed the most gains.

In just the last week, the Trader Joe DeFi protocol based on Avalanche has generated the most gains in regards to TVL. The value locked in this protocol has gone up over 50 percent.

The L1 competition to Ethereum isn't the only place where activity has gone up in recent months. Several fresh L2 solutions have resulted in more gas consumption by L2 protocols. There has also been an airdrop by DYDX to compound matters.

Delphi Digital data illustrates how the amount of gas L2 solutions use is over 1 percent, having spiked as much as 2 percent earlier in September.

DYDX was among the first adopters of L2 technology, given their work with Starkware. The DYDX protocol is seeing unprecedented levels of activity in the last few weeks. This has likely been due to the publication of DYDX governance that came out on September 8th. It was immediately available to users who had previously utilized the DYDX protocol.

After that governance airdrop release, the DYDX protocol TVL locked-in went from approximately $400 million up to over $550 million. The 24-hr. training volume nearly quadrupled, rising from $700 million to nearly $2.5 billion.