Pre-emptively Claiming the Cosmos: BlockDAG's Quiet Rise to Global Stardom

Cosmos and Algorand, two well-known Layer 1 projects, launched with strong academic roots and bold technical promises. Each has tackled core challenges like

Cosmos and Algorand, two well-known Layer 1 projects, launched with strong academic roots and bold technical promises. Each has tackled core challenges like scalability, efficiency, and interoperability with varying degrees of success. However, despite their technical merit, both have faced limitations in adoption momentum and market performance.

While Cosmos and Algorand focused on broad technical innovation, another project, BlockDAG, has quietly gained global traction—not just through tech upgrades but by showing up where it counts: delivery, transparency, and user engagement.

With over $208 million raised in its presale and 18.9 billion coins sold to date, BlockDAG stands as a case study in what real traction looks like in the world of Layer 1 blockchain projects.

Cosmos: Pioneering Interoperable Blockchains

Conceived by Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman in 2014, Cosmos aimed to address the pressing challenge of blockchain interoperability. The project's journey began with an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017, which saw the project raise $17 million to kickstart its development.

After two years of development, the Cosmos Hub mainnet was launched in March 2019, marking a significant milestone in connecting disparate blockchains.

On the financial front, Cosmos has attracted substantial investments, including a $55 million Series B round led by Paradigm in 2019 and a $10 million funding led by 1confirmation in 2020.

Furthermore, as of late 2024, the staking ratio of its native token, ATOM, fluctuated between 54.1% and 65.71%, concluding the year with 232.16 million ATOM staked. During the same period, the market capitalization of ATOM varied from $1.43 billion to $5.5 billion, settling at $2.43 billion by year's end.

Algorand: Revolutionizing Blockchain Efficiency

Founded by MIT professor Silvio Micali in 2017, Algorand set out to enhance blockchain scalability and security. The mainnet and its native token, ALGO, were launched in June 2019.

The project's technical innovations, such as its Pure Proof-of-Stake (PPoS) consensus mechanism, enabled rapid transaction processing with low staking requirements, thereby promoting decentralization.

By June 2024, the network had processed over two billion transactions since its inception, with a record 43 million transactions in a single day on January 1, 2024. Notably, the first quarter of 2024 saw 403 million transactions, a 288% increase from the previous quarter, and the platform reached 35 million total accounts with an average of 800,000 monthly active users.

However, ALGO's market performance has faced challenges. As of March 26, 2025, ALGO traded at $0.21, reflecting a 22.38% decrease over the past 12 months and a significant drop from its all-time high of $4.77 in 2019. The market capitalization stood at $1.84 billion.

The Secret Behind BlockDAG's $200M Raise

BlockDAG's staggering presale success isn't just a financial headline—it's a story of global belief in follow-through. In an industry often driven by hype and hollow promises, BlockDAG stands out by consistently delivering on what it says it will do.

For example, from nearly 10,000 X-series miners sold and more than 750,000 users onboarded via the X1 Miner App to over 400,000 players in the Tap Miner game, this is a project people can actually see and engage with—not just speculate on.

At the time of writing, BlockDAG is in batch 27 of its presale, with the current price at $0.0248 per coin. That's a jaw-dropping 2,380% return on investment from batch 1, which sold out at $0.001, highlighting the early believers' trust in the project's execution.

To date, more than 18.9 billion coins have been sold—a figure that represents not just volume, but momentum.

What truly fuels this momentum is the community. The 100,000+ strong members across BlockDAG's channels aren't just followers—they're active contributors, testnet node operators, miners, and early builders. In fact, they're the reason the presale wasn't just possible—it flourished.

This isn't a story about fundraising