Despite the doubts of many cryptocurrency investors, Blast, a layer-2 blockchain that is slated to launch in March, has amassed more than $225 million in staked ether, stETH, and stablecoins since Monday.Blast, which is billed as the first layer-2 network with native staking, intends to eventually produce yield by staking Ethereum (ETH) and using real-world assets (RWAs).Developed on top of layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, layer 2 networks aim to reduce transaction costs and increase transaction speed.
Leading the protocol is the anonymous @PacmanBlur, a co-founder of the well-known NFT marketplace Blur.A portion of the network’s appeal can be ascribed to its supporters, which include well-known cryptocurrency fund Paradigm and a group of investors known as “eGirl Capital,” among others.One important note is that until the Blast bridge goes active in February, staked assets cannot be withdrawn.Users can redeem an airdrop slated for May by using their “Blast points,” which they get in the interim.By referring other users via special referral links, users can earn extra Blast points.Consequently, as of Thursday, Blast is invite-only and requires a code from an active user to access.
According to Etherscan, Blast is currently the seventh-largest ether holder, having staked the majority of the $225 million that it has received on Lido, a liquid staking protocol.But the cryptocurrency community has taken issue with the concept of restaking on Lido in exchange for giving away obscure Blast points.
“Blast is actually insane,” one crypto trader wrote on X. “Use points to attract TVL to a chain that doesn’t exist, convert the deposited ETH into stETH on a 5-person multisig of anon devs,” referring to total value locked, or the overall value of assets deposited in the protocol.
According to some analysts, Blast points resemble a pyramid scheme in that early users can increase their point total based on how many new users they refer.According to technical papers, users receive an extra 16% points for each user they invite to bring in more participants, and an additional 8% for each additional person the second level brings in.
Another topic of dispute is whether additional layer-2 networks are necessary in the congested decentralized finance (DeFi) area.DeFiLlama claims that there are currently 232 blockchains overall, many of which share users and services.Out of all of them, Ethereum is the biggest, holding 55% of the locked value, followed by BSC at 6% and Tron at 17%.
Although it’s important to note that Blast’s $225 million total value locked is quickly nearing that of Coinbase’s Base, which has $284 million, cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase (COIN) and Kraken have lately emerged with their own layer-2 networks.Despite the uncertainty surrounding Blast points, investors are still willing to invest in the platform, even if the Blast blockchain will not be operational for a further four months. As per Andrew Kang, a co-founder of Mechanism Capital, Blast is his “first new L2 investment since Arbitrum.”
Regarded by some investors as a beta play on Blast, the closely linked Blur (BLUR) token has seen a spike in price of 18% over the last day, bringing its weekly gain to over 40%.Blast is an addition to the Blur ecosystem, enabling Blur customers to generate yields on idle assets while enhancing the technical requirements necessary to provide users with complex NFT solutions, according to a post made earlier this week by Blur founder @PacmanBlur.