Layer by Layer Issue 27: Ethereum, Terra, Avalanche, and Fantom

Any thorough discussion of Layer 1 blockchains today is incomplete without a comparison to Ethereum, the smart contract platform that continues to process the large majority of on-chain financial activity. Over the past year, Ethereum’s market dominance in terms of total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols has been slowly chipped away by other rapidly growing L1s, but it still maintains a significant lead over its competitors.

DeFi on Ethereum currently comprises about 57% of TVL in DeFi projects as a whole, representing the significant value that the incumbent network still provides for crypto users despite the emergence of alternative L1 ecosystems. As the source of the deepest on-chain liquidity for crypto markets, Ethereum also processes the majority of trading volume conducted through decentralized exchanges (DEXs). In March 2022, volume on Ethereum-based DEXs like Uniswap accounted for about 60% of all DEX volume across L1s.