Moonbeam Q3 2024 Brief

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Key Insights

  • As of July 2024, Moonbeam had 860 total developers, up 26% YoY. Developer activity has been steadily increasing over the past year.
  • In September, more than $7.5 million was transferred to Moonbeam via the Wormhole bridge. Additionally, Moonbeam Routed Liquidity surpassed $31 million in total volume.
  • The stablecoin supply on Moonbeam increased by 16% QoQ, reaching $8.5 million by the end of Q3 2024. USDC was the driver, with a 76% increase to $2.7 million.
  • Moonbeam made a strategic gaming investment in N3MUS, a game with over 1 million monthly active players, through its $10 million Innovation Fund. This move reinforces Moonbeam’s commitment to gaming as a key pillar of its strategy.
  • Moonbeam introduced plans for a strategic expansion into the Ethereum ecosystem. This initiative aims to launch an expansion chain in the re-staking ecosystem that leverages Ethereum validators and restaking for security while preserving Moonbeam’s EVM and crosschain capabilities built on the substrate framework.

Primer

Moonbeam (GLMR) is a Layer-1 parachain on the Polkadot Network, serving as an EVM-compatible smart contract platform. It provides an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) implementation and a Web3 API, enabling straightforward deployment of Solidity contracts and protocol interfaces with minimal modifications. Moonbeam enables crosschain integrations, leveraging its Moonbeam Routed Liquidity functionality and bridge networks. Its primary features include cross-chain integration, staking, and on-chain governance.

The network includes multiple deployments: Moonbeam on Polkadot (December 2021), Moonriver on Kusama (June 2021), and Moonbase Alpha on TestNet (September 2020). This structure ensures safe and rapid updates to Moonbeam’s mainnet.

Moonbeam’s technology stack, built with Rust and Substrate, provides a robust development environment. It boasts Ethereum compatibility, offering a full EVM implementation and Web3 RPC API, which integrates existing Ethereum tools and applications. As a key player in the Polkadot ecosystem, Moonbeam provides developers with an accessible route to leverage Polkadot’s network effects while utilizing Ethereum tooling and compatibility.

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Key Metrics

Analysis

During a six-month period between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024, GLMR’s circulating market capitalization increased by 139%. However, in Q2 and Q3 2024, GLMR retraced along with the rest of the market, ending Q3 2024 with a circulating market capitalization of $161 million (-19% QoQ). The fully diluted market capitalization similarly fell, ending Q3 2024 at $202 million (-20% QoQ). GLMR’s market cap ranking dropped from 270 to 276,.

GLMR is the native token of the Moonbeam network. It serves multiple functions such as rewarding block producers to sustain chain liveliness, enabling onchain governance, and paying for network transaction fees. The token experiences an annual inflation of 5% with no maximum supply. The circulating supply at the end of Q3 was 904 million. The staked supply at the end of Q3 was 390 million GLMR, making the percentage of GLMR staked 43%, which was down 3% QoQ.

GLMR’s yearly high in quarterly transaction fees was in Q1 2024, reaching $215,000. However, fees have since fallen for two consecutive quarters, with $95,000 in Q2 2024 and $48,000 in Q3 2024. The decreases have been driven by a drop in transactions and average fees due to a decrease in the price of GLMR. Of the transaction fees generated on the Moonbeam network, 80% are burned with the remaining 20% directed to the network’s Treasury.

Moonbeam saw further declines in network activity in Q3 2024, with daily active addresses dropping to 2,400 (-70% QoQ) and daily transactions falling to 36,300 (-33% QoQ). Despite the decline, Moonbeam remained the second-largest parachain by addresses, only trailing Nodle, and both Nodle and Moonbeam are far ahead of the third-place parachain. It is worth noting that more teams are adopting Moonbeam’s batchPrecompile, a feature that allows developers to batch multiple transactions into a single one, which can under-represent actual onchain activity.

A bright spot for Moonbeam is the increase in developer activity, which has been steadily increasing over the past year. As of July 2024, Moonbeam has 860 total developers, which is up 26% YoY, of which 227 are full-time, 399 are part-time, and 234 are one-time developers.

Moonbeam core developers shipped a number of technical updates during Q3 2024, including:

  • Moonbeam v0.39.0
  • Runtime 3100
  • Moonbeam v0.39.1
  • Runtime 3101
  • Moonbeam v0.40.0
  • Runtime 3200
  • Runtime 3102
  • Moonbeam v0.40.1

Moonbeam implemented several additional technical upgrades:

  • 6-Second Block Times: An upgrade that successfully reduced block times from 12 to 6 seconds, improving throughput capacity.
  • Optimizing Data Access on Moonbeam: Chain Integration Process with The Graph Now Live: Integration with The Graph Network to enhance decentralized indexing and data querying capabilities.
  • RT3100 Unlocking Passkeys and Other New Use Cases: Introduces Passkeys, enhanced crosschain compatibility through Snowbridge, and a new runtime API for optimized transaction costs.
  • Glacis Integration: Integration of Glacis, providing universal cross-chain messaging and tools for developers.
  • Gas limit per block at 60 million: By setting the gas limit to 60 million per block, Moonbeam significantly boosts the number of transactions that can be processed in each block. The 60M block gas limit plus cutting block times in half yields an 8x throughput increase.

Moonbeam’s Cross-Consensus Messaging (XCM) activity experienced an unusual spike in Q1 2024 following Manta’s launch of their Layer 2, which utilized Moonbeam to facilitate asset transfers between their Parachain and L2. Over the past six months, however, XCM activity has steadily declined, with average daily XCM transfers during Q3 2024 at 344 (-33% QoQ) and average daily XCM messages at 460 (-43% QoQ). Despite this decrease, Moonbeam continues to rank among the leading parachains in XCM activity.

Moonbeam TVL (USD) fell in Q3 2024 by 17% QoQ, ending the quarter at $36 million. Moonwell continued to be the leading protocol with a TVL of $18.7 million (-44% QoQ). StellaSwap saw a 111% QoQ gain to $11.9 million. The gap between Moonwell and StellaSwap was $22 million last quarter but has decreased to $7 million this quarter.

The next three largest protocols by TVL were Prime Protocol ($2.9 million, +54% QoQ), Uniswap ($1.2 million, +75% QoQ), and Frax Swap ($1 million, -7% QoQ). Uniswap became the leading protocol by trading volumes, accounting for 67% of total trading volume in the final week of Q3 2024.

The stablecoin supply on Moonbeam increased by 16% QoQ, reaching $8.5 million by the end of Q3 2024. Frax continued to lead the stablecoin market on Moonbeam, remaining at $5.3 million, which was flat QoQ. Meanwhile, USDC saw an increase of 76% QoQ, reaching $2.7 million.

Additional Developments

Gaming has been a major focus for Moonbeam in 2024, with initiatives like a partnership with Animo Industries (developer of “Stars Arena”), the Polkadot Games Bounty funded with 100,000 DOT, the Lunar Gaming Festival, and the launch of Heroes Battle Arena.

In Q3 2024, Moonbeam continued with the gaming updates by investing in N3MUS through its $10 million Innovation Fund, a gamehub, SDK and tournament system with over 18,000 active users.

Additionally, Moonbeam is also focused on tokenizing real-world assets through a partnership with Colb Finance, as part of the Moonbeam × Colb Finance collaboration to introduce Swiss-compliant stablecoins and Tokenized Structured Products for professional investors. Other RWA protocols include Tokeniza, Zuka, DREX, and Tamarin Health.

Moreover, the DePIN Diode expanded to Moonbeam. It offers secure communication tools such as encrypted chat, file sharing, and a Zero Trust Network (ZTN) VPN, and since June has added 900 new users and aims to reach 1,500 nodes by 2025, incentivizing contributors with tokens.

Other notable developments include:

Moonbeam Routed Liquidity has now exceeded $31 million in total volume across nearly 2,000 transfers. This growth underscores Moonbeam’s capacity to facilitate multichain liquidity, advancing its commitment to a decentralized future.

Roadmap

Moonbeam’s strategic roadmap for 2024 has focused on enhancing crosschain interoperability, advancing gaming initiatives, integrating real-world assets, and expanding into new regions. The Moonrise initiative, launched in Q2 2024, has already made progress with key developments such as reducing block times to six seconds, incorporating Ethereum’s Dencun compatibility, and establishing an Ecosystem Fund. The future plans for Moonrise include core protocol enhancements as well as further integrations to improve crosschain functionality. New developer tools, such as Passkey enabling Smart Wallet support and streamlined stablecoin flows, are also aimed at enhancing user experience.

In September 2024, Moonbeam introduced a potential strategic shift to expand into the Ethereum ecosystem, potentially launching in Q2/Q3 of 2025. The expansion aims to launch an expansion chain in the Ethereum re-staking ecosystem that would leverage Ethereum validators and restaking for security while maintaining the core substrate technology powering Moonbeam’s EVM, crosschain and governance capabilities. This proposal is still in its research phase, requiring new workstreams to explore logistics and viability.

Closing Summary

The market experienced a slowdown in Q3 2024, and some of Moonbeam’s KPIS were affected by these broader trends. Despite this environment, Moonbeam demonstrated and showcased several areas of growth and progress.

Developer activity increased, with a 26% YoY rise in total developers, bringing the total to 860 total developers. StellaSwap’s 111% gain in TVL and the narrowing gap between Moonwell and StellaSwap underscore a diverse DeFi ecosystem. Additionally, the 16% increase in stablecoin supply, driven by USDC, highlights liquidity flowing into the network. Moonbeam’s investment in N3MUS through its Innovation Fund continued Moonbeam’s focus on gaming throughout 2024. Additionally, Moonbeam expanded its presence in the Real World Asset sector through a partnership with Colb Finance, while the launch of DePIN Diode expanded its ecosystem.

Looking ahead, Moonbeam’s potential strategic shift to expand into the Ethereum ecosystem is a major potential development.

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