Blast Critics Run Victory Laps as the Heavily Hyped Layer 2 (L2) Experiences an Onchain Exodus

The chain's daily active user (DAU) count is at a new low of roughly 30,000, which is 91% lower than Arbitrum's 350,000 users and 53% lower than Optimism's 65

Blast critics are celebrating a mass exodus from the hyped Layer 2 (L2) chain, which is now experiencing a daily active user (DAU) count at a new low.

According to DeFiLlama, Blast’s chain activity has dropped significantly, with roughly 30,000 daily active users, which is 91% lower than Arbitrum’s 350,000 users and 53% lower than Optimism’s 65,000.

Blast’s total value locked (TVL) is also down over 60% from its all-time high of $2.3 billion on June 5, now sitting at $875 million.

Adding insult to injury, Blast is also losing some of its community to competitors. PacMoon, the largest memecoin on Blast, recently announced its migration to Solana. The move comes as Pacmoon’s PAC token is down over 80%, falling to a $4 million market capitalization from its June highs of $23 million.

"We think that tokens, community, and culture are what make a blockchain successful. However, Blast never focused on that. In fact, they created a system where native tokens on Blast are actively disincentivized and they provided zero social support," PacMoon team member Lamboland wrote on social media.

The BLAST token has also seen better days. After reaching a fully diluted valuation of $2.9 billion on its opening day, the token price is down 63% from its high.

Blast’s top decentralized applications (dApps) have also felt the brunt of the ecosystem's downturn. The TVL of Thruster, the top decentralized exchange (DEX) on Blast, dropped 54% since its June 26 airdrop, moving from $457 million to $208 million.

According to TokenTerminal, Thruster’s daily active users also dropped to as few as 1,500 DAU on Aug. 11, down from fluctuating between 8,000 and 15,000 during May and June.

The Blast team did not immediately respond to The Defiant’s request for comment.

Airdrop Incentives Take Their Toll

During its pre-token generation event (TGE) period, Blast was one of the most anticipated airdrops in DeFi, alongside LayerZero and ZkSync, with many farmers calling for a $10 billion valuation. After it opened at far below expectations, most farmers did not hesitate to dump their allocations.

The Blast ecosystem’s harsh drawdown is indicative of DeFi’ الكبيرs' mercenary airdrop farming scene. As shown by many of its predecessors, when incentives dry up, the fallout can be intense.

But there’s also hope for recovery.

Arbitrum experienced a similar phenomenon after its airdrop event in March of 2023, albeit on a delayed timeline.

Shortly after the ARB TGE, Arbitrum reached a TVL of $2.4 billion, which plummeted 36% to $1.6 billion over the next 4 months. Arbitrum’s daily users fell by as much as 65% to a low of 82,000 in October 2023 from roughly 250,000 daily users at the end of April 2023 users.

After the post TGE shakeout period, Arbitrum went on to solidify its place as the number one L2 by TVL with $2.7 billion, a 62% increase from its low. It is currently 44% larger than its closest competitor, Base.

While chain metrics may not indicate it, Blast’s season 2 of airdrop farming is still ongoing. Season 2 is expected to conclude in June 2025, and features points and gold similar to its season 1.