The Web3 area includes many blockchains of various varieties and sizes. However what are the largest and hottest blockchains? And what are probably the most distinguished blockchain networks for builders? Effectively, answering the questions above is less complicated mentioned than accomplished, as there are a number of methods to measure a blockchain’s measurement and recognition. Nevertheless, when you’re on the lookout for a nuanced reply, be a part of us on this article as we discover the largest and hottest blockchains by way of market cap, transaction quantity, ecosystem, and extra!
Overview: Largest and Most Standard Blockchains
In as we speak’s article, we’ll kick issues off by answering the query, ”What are the largest and hottest blockchains?”. In doing so, we’ll have a look at probably the most vital blockchain networks by way of market cap, transaction quantity, and ecosystem. From there, we’ll discover probably the most distinguished blockchain networks for builders. Lastly, to prime issues off, we’ll introduce you to Moralis’ industry-leading suite of Web3 API, as that is the best method so that you can construct cross-chain appropriate decentralized purposes (dapps)!
In Moralis’ suite of premier APIs, you’ll discover many instruments that make Web3 growth extra seamless. Some distinguished examples embody the Token API, Streams API, and many others. With these instruments, you possibly can construct dapps sooner and smarter, permitting you to save lots of each helpful growth time and assets.
So, when you’re critical about constructing blockchain tasks, contemplate trying out Moralis. You possibly can join with Moralis freed from cost, and also you’ll achieve fast entry to our industry-leading Web3 APIs!
What are the Largest and Most Standard Blockchains?
Offering a simple reply to the query, ”What are the largest blockchains?” is less complicated mentioned than accomplished. The rationale for that is that there are a number of other ways to measure the dimensions of blockchains. As an illustration, one blockchain may be the largest by way of market cap; in the meantime, one other may be the biggest in terms of quantity.
Consequently, within the following subsections, we’ll have a look at the largest and hottest blockchains primarily based on three metrics:
Market CapTransaction VolumeEcosystem
So, with out additional ado, let’s kick issues off by wanting on the largest blockchains by market cap!
Largest Blockchains by Market Cap
The crypto market includes many cash on a number of chains with an gathered complete market cap of about $1.4 trillion. Whereas some blockchain networks solely host a single token, different networks – corresponding to Ethereum – are residence to hundreds of cash. So, when measuring a blockchain’s market cap, we have to take this into consideration.
As such, to make issues as simple as potential, we’ll primarily focus available on the market cap of a series’s native token to find out which is the biggest community. Nevertheless, the order stays the identical even with all tokens for every chain thought of.
With that mentioned, listed here are the largest blockchains by market cap:
Bitcoin: Regardless that the Bitcoin blockchain doesn’t host as many tokens as different chains corresponding to Ethereum, BNB Good Chain (BSC), and many others., it’s nonetheless the largest community by a mile in terms of market cap. In reality, Bitcoin has a complete market cap of about $740 billion, making up greater than 50% of the whole worth of the crypto {industry}.Ethereum: Ethereum is the second largest blockchain in terms of market cap. The chain’s native token, ether (ETH), has a complete worth of $244 billion, making up about 17% of the market share. Nevertheless, it’s price noting that the Ethereum ecosystem hosts a wide range of further tokens. But, even when taking these into consideration, Bitcoin stays probably the most vital blockchain by way of market cap.BSC: The third largest blockchain is BSC (BNB Good Chain), and its native token, BNB, has a complete market cap of $35 billion, making up about 2.5% of the market share. Nevertheless, like Ethereum, BSC hosts an enormous community of further cryptocurrencies. As such, in terms of the precise market cap of the BSC blockchain with all tokens thought of, it isn’t all that far behind Ethereum.
Most Standard Blockchains by Transaction Quantity
Relating to transactions, it’s additionally potential to measure which is the largest blockchains in varied methods. As an illustration, we are able to have a look at the whole variety of transactions, the variety of transactions over a given time interval, and many others.
Nevertheless, for this part, we’ll have a look at the largest blockchains by transaction quantity in USD over the previous month throughout all dapps and sensible contracts. Doing so offers us perception into the present state of the blockchain networks. However, primarily based on this, Ethereum stands out as probably the most vital blockchain by transaction quantity:
Ethereum: Ethereum is probably the most intensive blockchain community in terms of transaction quantity. On the time of writing, the whole worth of all transactions over the previous month quantities to roughly $115 billion. Arbitrum: Arbitrum is the second largest chain among the many largest blockchains by transaction quantity. Over the previous 30 days, Arbitrum has had a complete transaction quantity of about $26 billion throughout all dapps and sensible contracts hosted on the chain. BSC: BSC is the third most vital blockchain in terms of transaction quantity measured in USD. Through the previous 30 days, the community has had a complete transaction quantity of simply above $14 billion.
Largest Blockchain Ecosystems
Are you aware what number of blockchains there are? And have you learnt that there are various kinds of blockchain networks? Some blockchains are primarily used for transactions, whereas others help sensible contracts, permitting builders to construct decentralized purposes (dapps)!
On this part, we’ll discover the three largest blockchains that assist you to construct dapps. And we’ll measure the dimensions of a community by the variety of tasks hosted on the chain:
BSC: BSC is probably the most vital blockchain ecosystem in terms of the variety of dapps. This community hosts about 5.1K tasks, and a few distinguished examples embody PancakeSwap, Venus, and 1inch.Ethereum: The second largest blockchain ecosystem is Ethereum, and the community hosts roughly 4.4K dapps. Some examples of common tasks on Ethereum embody Uniswap, Blur, and MakerDAO.Polygon: Polygon is the third largest ecosystem by way of the variety of dapps hosted on the blockchain. This community options about 1.9K totally different protocols, and a few examples are Aavegotchi, Tangible, and QuickSwap.
What are the Most Standard Blockchain Networks for Builders?
Now, with an summary of the largest chains by way of market cap, transaction quantity, and ecosystem, let’s discover the preferred blockchain networks for builders. And we have now, the truth is, already touched on three of them:
EthereumBSCPolygon
Nevertheless, we’ll dive deeper into every within the following sections to elucidate what they’re and the way they work!
Ethereum: #1 Blockchain for Builders
The Ethereum blockchain launched again in 2015, and it’s a proof-of-stake (PoS) community designed to be scalable, safe, decentralized, and programmable. Ethereum natively helps sensible contracts, and the blockchain hosts an enormous ecosystem of dapps, ERC-20 tokens, NFTs, and different thrilling tasks.
Moreover, Ethereum is the go-to alternative for a lot of Web3 builders. However why precisely is that? And why do builders select to construct on Ethereum?
To begin with, Ethereum is extensively thought of to be the primary programmable blockchain. And with a wealthy historical past, the community has had time to mature and evolve. As such, Ethereum at present options many distinguished instruments and assets that make dapp growth considerably extra accessible.
An awesome instance is Solidity, the preferred programming language for writing Ethereum Digital Machine (EVM) appropriate sensible contracts. This language options many Solidity instruments that make sensible contract growth extra seamless. Different examples embody testnets like Sepolia and Goerli, common IDEs corresponding to Remix, Web3 wallets like MetaMask, and many others.
One more reason builders are constructing on Ethereum is the community’s excessive safety. Ethereum has a protracted and robust observe report by way of safety, and its consensus mechanism is designed to maintain the community protected and forestall malicious assaults.
Moreover, the Ethereum community options its personal native cryptocurrency known as ether (ETH). ETH performs a vital function within the Ethereum ecosystem, because it’s used to pay for transactions on the blockchain. Consequently, anybody trying to work together with the Ethereum blockchain typically wants ETH of their pockets to pay related fuel charges.
However, that briefly covers an summary of Ethereum; let’s now discover BSC!
BNB Good Chain (BSC)
BSC, or BNB Good Chain, was initially often called Binance Good Chain when it launched in 2020. Nevertheless, a few years later, in 2022, Binance Good Chain was rebranded as BNB Good Chain.
BSC is a part of the bigger BNB Chain ecosystem, which includes three further chains and platforms: BNB Beacon Chain (a governance and staking layer), BNB Greenfield (an information storage platform), and zkBNB (a zero-knowledge rollup for scaling).
BSC is the EVM-compatible sensible contract execution layer of the BNB Chain ecosystem, and it operates on a proof-of-staked authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism. It is a hybrid method combining options from delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) and proof-of-authority (PoA).
So, why are builders constructing on BSC?
To begin with, BSC is understood for its excessive transaction pace and low transaction prices. It is a nice motivation for builders to construct on BSC, as the top customers received’t should pay astronomically excessive fuel charges to make use of dapps and different platforms on the community.
One more reason is the truth that BSC is EVM-compatible. Which means that the community helps EVM sensible contracts and protocols. Consequently, when constructing on BSC, builders can use lots of the identical superior instruments they might use when constructing Ethereum dapps.
Now, with an summary of BSC, let’s dive into the final blockchain for builders: Polygon!
Polygon
The expansion of Ethereum has highlighted its scalability points. Throughout peak demand, fuel costs can rise excessively, making it economically unviable to make small, frequent transactions. Luckily, that is the place networks like Polygon enter the equation.
Polygon was initially launched as ”Matic Community” in 2017, and it’s a layer-2 (L2) scaling resolution for Ethereum. In brief, Polygon is a PoS sidechain operating parallel alongside the Ethereum mainnet. By varied applied sciences, Polygon is ready to ship quick transaction speeds at a fraction of the price of Ethereum.
However, why are builders constructing on Polygon?
Polygon has a number of distinguished benefits, and the clearest examples are the excessive transaction speeds and low prices in comparison with Ethereum. This makes it low-cost for finish customers to make use of dapps operating on the Polygon blockchain. What’s extra, very like BSC, Polygon can also be EVM-compatible. Consequently, builders can use highly effective and superior Ethereum instruments to construct on the community.
To discover Polygon additional, try the next information on Polygon PoS vs Polygon zkEVM!
Standard Blockchains for Builders – Which Blockchain and Instruments Ought to I Use?
Relating to Web3 growth, one of many first belongings you typically want to think about is which chain you wish to construct your undertaking on. Nevertheless, what when you didn’t have to decide on? Effectively, when working with Moralis, you don’t!
Moralis is an industry-leading Web3 API supplier, and all our interfaces are cross-chain appropriate. Consequently, with Moralis, you possibly can leverage the identical instruments to construct dapps throughout all the largest blockchains, together with Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Gnosis Chain, and lots of others!
In Moralis’ suite of Web3 APIs, you’ll discover quite a few interfaces for a number of use circumstances. And also you’ll discover three notable examples beneath:
Pockets API: Moralis’ Pockets API helps greater than 500 million addresses. With solely single strains of code, you possibly can effortlessly get any pockets’s balances, transfers, NFTs, and many others. Consequently, that is the final word device for integrating Web3 pockets performance into your dapps. As an illustration, right here’s how simple it’s to get the native steadiness of a pockets with the getNativeBalance() endpoint: const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.steadiness.getNativeBalance({
“chain”: “0x1”,
“handle”: “0xDC24316b9AE028F1497c275EB9192a3Ea0f67022”
}); NFT API: The NFT API is the final word NFT knowledge analytics device for Web3 growth. With this premier interface, you possibly can effortlessly question NFT balances, transfers, metadata, and extra. For instance, with the getNFTMetadata() endpoint, you possibly can seamlessly get the metadata of any token: const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.nft.getNFTMetadata({
“chain”: “0x1”,
“handle”: “0xb47e3cd837dDF8e4c57F05d70Ab865de6e193BBB”,
“tokenId”: “1”
}); Blockchain API: Moralis’ Blockchain API is the final word device for blockchain knowledge. With solely single strains of code, you may get the contents of any block, sensible contract occasions, logs, and far more. As an illustration, that is how simple it’s to get the contents of a block utilizing the getBlock() endpoint: const response = await Moralis.EvmApi.block.getBlock({
“chain”: “0x1”,
“blockNumberOrHash”: “18541416”
});
Try all our interfaces by visiting our Web3 API web page!
Additionally, do you know that you would be able to entry our APIs totally free? So, join with Moralis and turn out to be a Web3 developer as we speak!
Abstract: What are the Largest and Most Standard Blockchain Networks for Builders?
In as we speak’s article, we explored the largest and hottest blockchains throughout the next three dimensions:
Market CapTransaction VolumeEcosystem
We additionally lined the largest and hottest blockchain networks for builders, the place we dove deeper into Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon!
Should you’d wish to discover different networks, make certain to take a look at Moralis’ Web3 Wiki. The Web3 Wiki is the {industry}’s finest dapp retailer, and you should use this device to find new blockchain networks for builders, dapps, and different Web3 tasks! Additionally, when you’re critical about blockchain growth, don’t overlook to enroll with Moralis. You possibly can arrange your account totally totally free, and also you’ll get on the spot entry to all our premier Web3 APIs!