Must-Watch Layer 1 Tracks in 2025: An Overview of the Market Performance of 15 Projects

Entering 2025, the Layer 1 ecosystem landscape has been established. This review covers the latest data and ecological trends of 15 mainstream projects, which are worth a deep dive.

Three Amazing Dark Horses with Incredible Gains:

• Sei: 6000% (Although the base is small, it's indeed exaggerated)
• Kaspa: 257% (GHOSTDAG consensus + Rust development efficiency is significant)
• SOL: 464% (has surpassed XRP to become the fifth largest market cap coin)

TVL Leader: Ethereum is far ahead (49 billion), BNB Chain is second (5.2 billion), and Solana is third (3.46 billion). In comparison, the newcomer Sui, although only at 557 million, shows a growth momentum that cannot be underestimated.

Ecological Highlights Overview:

1. Solana — 2000+ nodes, BONK airdrop flooding the screen, Firedancer upgrade imminent, the ecosystem is crazily innovating.
2. Avalanche — Daily trading exceeded 2.3 million, the inscription craze drove on-chain fees to sky-high prices.
3. Bitcoin — Ordinals protocol activates NFT minting, Layer 2 solutions (like Stacks) open the smart contract window
4. TON — Telegram will share advertising revenue on the blockchain, practical application scenarios emerge.
5. Ethereum — Layer 2 scaling solutions are continuously being optimized, still the most active frontier in the ecosystem.

Risks to be aware of:

• Sui and Aptos, although technologically advanced, have seen price pullbacks (down 73% and 27% respectively). I am optimistic in the long term, but there is significant short-term volatility.
• Emerging projects like ZetaChain have an enticing cross-chain narrative, but the ecosystem is still very new and carries high risks.
• Many projects heavily rely on ecological funding support, and once the funds are depleted, a cold situation may arise.

Overall Trend: The Layer 1 diversified competitive landscape has formed, and it is no longer a “one-horse race” dominated by Ethereum. High TPS, low cost, and innovative consensus mechanisms have become key factors for new projects to break through. However, the trade-off between security and decentralization remains a core issue.