Explore the impact of PEPE cryptocurrency’s memecoin fever on Ethereum and Tron during Q2 2023, leading to a sharp increase in volumes and revenue.
The PEPE cryptocurrency’s memecoin fever in the second quarter of 2023 caused the layer1s Ethereum and Tron to have a sharp increase in volumes and revenue. Ethereum validators hailed the crypto frog Pepe in particular for enabling outstanding profits in May.
The two most lucrative L1s are Ethereum and Tron: Pepe crypto causes a volume surge
In Q2 2023, the Ethereum and Tron infrastructures benefited greatly from the memecoin fever brought on by the introduction of the PEPE cryptocurrency, according to blockchain research company Messari.
The enormous volumes produced on the DeFi platforms helped the two blockchain networks’ respective revenues rise, especially in May.
In the second quarter, the combined revenue from Ethereum and Tron validators accounted for 93% of the total L1 industry revenue.
Net fees recorded on Vitalik Buterin’s chain increased 83% on a QoQ basis, reaching a peak of $32 million on May 5 during the height of the Pepe cryptocurrency’s excitement.
Competitors BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, and other smaller chains saw a combined gain of $74 million during the four-month reporting period, which was 11 times less than Ethereum’s.
It is also quite intriguing to observe that on the weekend of May 6-7, validators made gains of 3,006.78 ETH, or a counter value of $5.6 million, which is almost exactly the amount that was reported when the FTX exchange crashed.
The flashboats dashboard demonstrates how MEV-boost payments, which totaled 2,505.69 ETH in November 2022 during the exchange meltdown for a combined validators’ revenue of 3,929.68 ETH ($6.1 million), greatly increased the gain.
Insiders who verified transactions on the two networks congratulated Pepe and the traders who aggressively traded it on DEXs like Uniswap during all of this.
It is incredible to see how the popularity of a memecoin like the Pepe cryptocurrency has produced such a favorable environment for Tron and Ethereum to reach these levels.
The fact that 600 ETH were burned through the memecoin between May 6 and 7, more than Coinbase, Optimism, or Blur earned individually, is also remarkable.
The general environment in the DeFi community
Without focusing on Pepe or the Ethereum and Tron chains, let’s examine DeFi’s overall health and earnings.
Decentralized finance, unlike its centralized version regulated by bitcoin exchanges, is much younger, has a shorter history, and won’t see its first meaningful benefits until late 2020.
In a few years, DeFi has grown in volume, revenue, technology, and decentralized applications that may explain this industry.
This financial ecosystem’s revenue is $957 million and predicted to reach $1 billion by year’s end.
Libertarian movements and younger generations who prefer self-custody and decentralized exchanges on chains like Ethereum and Tron over third-party infrastructures have made it popular.
However, if we think about it, it is out of control to believe that Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies were created at a time when it was necessary to avoid financial intermediaries and that the proliferation of CEXs allowed the early development of the business.
DeFi essentially attempts to provide a world where financial services are decoupled from centralized bodies and customers can maintain their privacy without disclosing sensitive information to the first rival.
However, despite recent growth, decentralized finance still only accounts for a very small 4% of the industry when compared to CEXs.
The performance of Lido, Uniswap, and MakerDAO, which produced fees of $52.18 million, $36.28 million, and $9.47 million, respectively, in the last 30 days, can be mentioned as examples of the most well-known and most lucrative protocols that make up the DeFi industry.
Projects like Convex Finance, Aave, Gmx, Maestro, Blur, and Synthetix come next.
It is clear that the Uniswap and Lido protocols, with respective TVLs of $3.78 billion and $14.67 billion, serve as the industry’s primary standards.
