"The success of the blockchain industry lies not in the triumph of a single technology or platform, but in building a highly inclusive, richly innovative, and self-evolving industry ecosystem." — Dora Yue, Founder of OKX Ventures
In 2024, amidst the intense shifts in the global financial landscape, the cryptocurrency industry experienced profound volatility and restructuring. After six months of consolidation and recovery, by the end of the year, the industry's total market capitalization surpassed $3.8 trillion, with Bitcoin reaching a historic high of $100,000, affirming its core position in the global asset system. This wasn’t just a price surge, but the beginning of a structural transformation. A liquidity cycle chain centered around Bitcoin as the core asset, with ETFs and U.S. stocks acting as bridges and U.S.-listed companies serving as carriers, has already taken shape.
Bitcoin is rising as the world's largest dollar-denominated financial asset, becoming a key tool for hedging against the U.S. fiscal deficit and the U.S. debt crisis. This financial transformation has not only shaped a new asset value system but also injected lasting growth momentum into the blockchain industry. The entire blockchain sector is benefiting from this, and OKX Ventures, with its pioneering approach, is deeply involved in this transformative wave. We remain optimistic about the subtle yet profound changes blockchain products will bring to the traditional world over the next decade. Let's take a closer look.
1. Review of 2024: 60+ Project Investments, Expansive Multi-Track Strategy
In 2024, OKX Ventures significantly increased its industry investments, aiming to accelerate innovation and development within the cryptocurrency sector. The total investment for the year surpassed $100 million, covering more than 60 projects and funds. Our focus was primarily on innovation and entrepreneurship within the Solana, Sui, Aptos, TON, and Bitcoin ecosystems, with a deep dive into discovering high-quality projects.
From an investment distribution perspective, the highest proportions were allocated to infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) projects, and the BTC ecosystem, with broad investments also being made across multi-chain ecosystems, DeFi, and various ecological funds. Some of the representative projects include:
Beyond this, OKX Ventures actively partnered with TON Ventures, Ankaa, TGH, and other ecosystems, including funds and accelerators, to collaboratively build a thriving innovation ecosystem. By providing financial support, strategic guidance, and technical resources, these collaborations aim to empower global entrepreneurs, helping them bring their ideas to life more quickly and with stability. Whether it's incubation in the early stages or acceleration during growth, OKX Ventures remains focused on innovation, dedicated to driving the adoption and application of blockchain technology, and injecting more vitality and possibilities into the industry.
We fully understand that the future of the blockchain industry isn’t just about capital investment, but also about how to efficiently integrate global resources, gather industry intelligence, and empower innovative companies based on these foundations. Capital, as a driving force, needs to rely on a strategic vision and systematic structure to propel the industry forward in multidimensional technology innovation, ecosystem development, and market expansion. Each investment decision isn’t only about the flow of funds but also reflects a deep insight into the industry’s future and support for innovative forces. From infrastructure development to ecosystem expansion and the exploration of cutting-edge technologies, OKX Ventures continues to align its investments with the industry's evolution over the next decade, striving to provide a solid foundation and ample space for the widespread adoption and profound transformation of blockchain.
At the same time, blockchain technology innovation can’t solely depend on the drive of the capital markets. It also relies on visionary entrepreneurship and the continuous exploration of technical teams. Our mission at OKX Ventures is to help entrepreneurs who contribute value to the industry build great companies and achieve breakthroughs in technology, market, and operations. This support goes beyond individual projects or teams, laying the groundwork for the future ecosystem of the entire industry.
We believe that the success of the blockchain industry doesn't lie in the triumph of a single technology or platform, but in building an inclusive, innovative, and self-evolving industry ecosystem. It's this profound understanding of the industry and its future vision that enables us to stay ahead of the curve during this transformative era and push the industry towards a more mature and sustainable future.
2. Outlook for 2025: 14 Predictions, Insights into the Future
Prediction 1: Global blockchain will become more compliant, leading to a more regulated industry
In 2025, the compliance environment within the blockchain space will experience significant progress, laying a solid foundation for the healthy development of the industry. The number of licensed institutions will increase significantly, providing users with safer and more reliable services. OKX CEO and Founder Star Xu has stated that OKX has become the first global cryptocurrency exchange platform to obtain a comprehensive operating license in the UAE.
The custodial wallet sector will see compliance innovations aimed at resolving the conflict between self-custody and regulation. Star notes that OKX is launching a self-custody wallet for retail users with compliance controls, including features like KYC transaction monitoring. This innovation not only enhances the user experience but also meets increasingly strict regulatory requirements, bringing a new development direction to the industry.
The broader regulatory environment will become more positive, creating favorable conditions for industry growth. The UK government plans to consult on the regulatory framework for stablecoins and crypto assets in early 2025, signaling that global regulations are moving toward a more defined and supportive direction. National bitcoin reserves could also become a reality in 2025.
Institutional investors' participation will rise significantly. As of December 17, 2024 the Bitcoin spot ETF market surpassed $114.97 billion, and MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings reached 439,000 BTC, with a total investment cost of about $27.1 billion. Meanwhile, traditional financial institutions are accelerating their entry into the crypto industry.
The integration of technology and compliance will reach new heights, raising industry standards. Star predicts that by 2025, many crypto companies will achieve compliance standards that meet or even surpass those of traditional financial institutions. OKX’s three main business lines — OKX Exchange, OKX Web3, and OKX Simple — offer a wide range of services, from trading to decentralized applications. This comprehensive service model will become the industry standard, pushing blockchain technology's application and adoption into more areas.
In 2025, the blockchain industry will be more mature, regulated, and innovative. As Star has stated, crypto finance is entering a new phase, one that will witness a deep integration of traditional finance and blockchain technology, leading to revolutionary changes in the global financial system.
Prediction 2: AI agents will become key players in the market, engaging in asset creation, issuance, and trading
With the rapid development of large-scale language models (XLLMs) and multimodal models (XLMMs), new AI agents will gradually become crucial entities in the market. According to research reports, the global AI agent market is expected to reach $1.811 trillion by 2030, contributing approximately $16 trillion to global GDP. The future of AI agents isn’t just about traditional tools — they'll become major participants in the blockchain world, capable of autonomous decision-making and actions.
We anticipate that by 2025, we'll see more innovative applications of AI agents. For example, agent-to-agent interactions will become a key area, and the transparency and composability of blockchain will provide an ideal foundation for this. We may see agents sending funds to each other, jointly issuing tokens, or even creating new social scenarios. Additionally, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) may become a hot topic, with multi-agent systems working collaboratively to complete tasks, solve problems, and manage protocols.
AI agents are highly adaptable, with clear goal-setting and self-correction capabilities, enabling them to make independent decisions in complex environments. In the future, these agents will have their own digital wallets, proactively create and publish content, engage in asset trading for optimal returns, and automatically issue assets based on market demand. This shift signals that AI agents will play an increasingly important role in market and social platforms, similar to the emergence of AI agent frameworks like Eliza, combined with platforms such as Myshell representing agent-based systems, which will drive this trend forward.
Finally, we expect to see more innovations in AI agent trading intentions and next-generation user trading interfaces. This could include trading via natural language or the development of new trading systems and tools specifically for AI agents. As these technologies evolve, the concept of "wallet as a browser" may eventually be realized, fundamentally changing how users interact with blockchain and AI systems.
Prediction 3: Security projects to help address AI safety issues
The verifiability of blockchain can become a crucial solution to pressing AI security challenges. With the rapid advancement of AI technology, cybersecurity issues are becoming more prominent, particularly in areas like impersonation and deepfakes. Therefore, establishing mechanisms for "human identity verification" is critical to validate and secure interactions between users and real individuals. According to reports, 61% of organizations have noted an increase in deepfake attacks over the past year, with an expected rise of 50% to 60% in the future. The complexity of AI security issues primarily revolves around two points: dynamic attack vectors and prompt injection vulnerabilities. The rapid iteration of AI models means that new vulnerabilities emerge continuously. For example, different versions of models may exhibit completely different behaviors, leading to constantly changing attack methods.
Blockchain projects, with their decentralized and immutable characteristics, are well-positioned to address these challenges:
Data tracking and source verification: Blockchain can record and track the origin of data, ensuring the authenticity of content generation through cryptographic signatures. This can help combat AI-generated deepfakes and fake news, while also ensuring data transparency and traceability.
Protecting training data: Blockchain can safeguard the data sets required for AI model training, preventing tampering or attacks. This ensures data integrity and security, and reduces the risk of single points of failure.
Recording and monitoring AI model usage: Blockchain can prevent unauthorized misuse of AI models and data by enabling secure sharing of models or data on trusted platforms without fear of information leaks or tampering. Users will be able to audit and verify AI behavior, therefore increasing trust in the system.
OKX Ventures believes that in the future, more AI security projects will emerge in the blockchain space, enhancing user trust in AI systems.
Prediction 4: AI integrates into existing sectors, changing industry paradigms
By 2025, the deep integration of AI technology will significantly transform various industries, including gaming, NFTs, DeFi, and social platforms. The gaming industry is expected to be especially impacted by AI. It's forecasted that global spending on AI in gaming will reach approximately $1.1 billion by 2025, signaling the industry's growing recognition of the technology's potential. Key AI applications in gaming include:
Generative design: Using algorithms to generate game content, improving development efficiency.
Personalized experience: AI will analyze player behavior to offer tailored game suggestions and challenges.
Enhanced interactivity: Smart NPCs (non-playable characters) will become more lifelike, increasing immersion.
Smarter AI agents: AI agents will improve how players interact with games, reducing the interactive burden on players themselves.
Social projects will also see significant innovation, with AI playing a key role not only in content generation and community interaction but also in driving tokenization and decentralized economic models. In 2024, we observed platforms like Farcaster introducing new methods of asset issuance via AI agents like Clanker and Larry, demonstrating community engagement and economic potential. Clanker reached a market cap of over $100 million, and LUM reached $70 million. In the future, AI will:
Monetize social interaction: Users can earn crypto rewards through content creation and interaction.
Build community economies: Using blockchain, users can directly participate in platform governance and profit-sharing.
Enhance security: Decentralized identity verification will protect user privacy.
In DeFi (decentralized finance), AI will bring efficiency improvements and transform interaction models in the following ways:
AI Agents in DeFi: Autonomous software entities (AI agents) will become essential participants in DeFi ecosystems, automatically executing complex transactions, optimizing investment strategies, and monitoring market dynamics in real time.
AI-driven investment platforms: AI-powered investment platforms and trading tools will lower entry barriers for users, integrating DeFi protocols across multiple chains to offer automated liquidity investment strategies, therefore improving asset management efficiency and accessibility.
AI-assisted security: AI will play a key role in detecting and optimizing smart contract vulnerabilities. Using deep learning and pattern recognition, AI can establish baselines for normal trading behavior, issuing alerts if anomalous activity is detected, thereby enhancing DeFi platform security.
By 2025, Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) are expected to reach $4 trillion in trading volume, with Total Value Locked (TVL) surpassing $200 billion. OKX Ventures anticipates that over 1 million AI agents will be active onchain, further accelerating the growth of the DeFi ecosystem.
OKX Ventures forecasts that 2025 will be the year AI deeply integrates with various industries. As technology advances and infrastructure improves, these sectors will face new opportunities and challenges, offering users richer and more secure experiences.
Prediction 5: Blockchain enhances AI element matching efficiency
Blockchain technology is improving the efficiency of matching AI elements across multiple dimensions, primarily including data, computing power, models, and funding. Taking the data market as an example, AI’s demand for data is growing at a significantly slower rate than its supply. For instance, ChatGPT was trained on 300 billion words, while the latest model, DBRX, used 12 trillion data points. The demand for publicly available human text data for AI training may exceed the total available data stock as early as 2026.
OKX Ventures is optimistic about the better matching of data resources and has invested in projects such as Space and Time, Privasea, 0G, and CARV.
Space and time provide a decentralized data warehouse, offering efficient indexing and querying of both onchain and offchain data.
Privasea uses Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to perform AI computations while protecting privacy.
CARV offers a modular data layer, providing high-quality user profiles and behavioral data for AI.
0G significantly enhances blockchain's ability to process AI-era data.
These projects have improved the efficiency of data acquisition, processing, and utilization for AI.
In other fields, projects like io.net in the computing power domain are optimizing the allocation of large-scale distributed computing resources required for AI. The AI chip market is expected to maintain robust growth, with data center AI chip sales reaching $154 billion in 2023 and expected to grow by 41% in 2025-2026. Edge computing AI will become a significant trend, supporting faster data processing and better privacy protection.
We believe that more outstanding AI startups will emerge, enhancing AI element matching efficiency across data sharing, computing power allocation, model collaboration, and other areas. This will provide strong support for the further development of AI. Meanwhile, this synergistic effect will drive breakthrough AI applications in various industries, bringing profound impacts across sectors.
Prediction 6: Babylon and Bitcoin layer-2 to usher in Bitcoin's DeFi summer
Looking ahead to 2025, the Bitcoin ecosystem's TVL and DeFi activity will see significant breakthroughs. As of October 2024, Babylon has already locked in more than 57,288 Bitcoins, with a total value of $6 billion. Babylon, as a leading project within the Bitcoin ecosystem, has become a crucial bridge connecting Bitcoin with various Proof of Stake (PoS) chains. Projects like SatLayer and Lombard, as part of the Babylon ecosystem, will further unlock Bitcoin's potential through the deployment of smart contracts. Other initiatives such as Bitlayer, Merlin, Bsquared Network, and Arch Network are exploring advanced scaling solutions to provide stronger infrastructure support for Bitcoin's DeFi ecosystem.
What's more, technologies like the UTXO Stack are focused on enhancing Bitcoin's smart contract capabilities. These innovations will significantly increase transaction throughput, reduce fees, and pave the way for more complex DeFi applications.
The Bitcoin DeFi sector will witness a broader range of application scenarios. Projects such as BounceBit, Corn, and Merlin are developing onchain lending and innovative liquidity provision mechanisms. Platforms like Solv Protocol and Bedrock will offer Bitcoin holders more diversified yield generation opportunities. Projects like Zeus and Lombard, meanwhile, are exploring ways to integrate Bitcoin's value more deeply into the DeFi ecosystem. By 2025, Bitcoin-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs) could see trading volumes surpass $4 trillion, accounting for 20% of centralized exchange spot trading volumes.
Improving the user experience will be another key focus. Wallet projects like Unisat are dedicated to simplifying the interaction between users and Bitcoin DeFi. Meanwhile, projects like Arch Network and SatLayer are developing inventive cross-chain solutions to enhance interoperability, allowing users to more easily transfer and use assets across different blockchain ecosystems.
Overall, the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2025 will present a more diversified and interconnected landscape. Innovations from the infrastructure to the application layer will drive Bitcoin's evolution from a pure store of value to a comprehensive financial infrastructure, offering users richer and more efficient financial services.
Prediction 7: Diversified and in-depth development of native Bitcoin innovations
On the technical front, the expansion of Bitcoin's scripting language is a key direction. In addition to the widely discussed OP_CAT, Bitcoin core developers are actively exploring the introduction of new opcodes such as OP_GROUP, OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV), and OP_TLUV. These new opcodes will significantly enhance Bitcoin’s programmability, laying the foundation for more complex smart contracts and use cases. For instance, OP_GROUP could enable the creation of alternative tokens on the Bitcoin network, while CTV is expected to facilitate pre-signed transactions, thereby greatly improving transaction efficiency.
The Lightning Network, as Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling solution, is expected to undergo important upgrades by 2025. The introduction of Channel Factories could enable the bulk creation of payment channels, significantly lowering the cost of opening them. Improvements in bi-directional capital injection mechanisms will enhance the efficiency of fund utilization in payment channels. Moreover, the integration of Taproot assets is expected to facilitate more private and efficient asset transfers, further expanding the Lightning Network's range of applications.
Enhancing privacy is another important direction the Bitcoin community has been actively researching. Improving transaction privacy without sacrificing auditability is key for future development. Confidential Transactions technology might be introduced to hide transaction amounts, while the optimization of CoinJoin mixing techniques will further enhance transaction anonymity. Additionally, the application of zero-knowledge proof technologies such as zk-SNARKs on Bitcoin is actively being explored, which could provide revolutionary privacy protection capabilities for Bitcoin.
On the application layer, the Bitcoin network is giving rise to diversified innovations, covering areas such as decentralized social networks, gaming and the metaverse, and open scientific research. These applications integrate technologies like micropayments, decentralized identity, content notarization, Ordinals, and the RGB protocol. Not only do these innovations bring new business models to the social media and gaming industries, they also improve transparency and credibility in scientific research through transparent fund management, data integrity protection, and decentralized evaluation mechanisms.These diverse applications showcase Bitcoin’s immense potential as a decentralized infrastructure that goes far beyond traditional finance, laying a solid foundation for the future of the digital world.
Prediction 8: Dual breakthrough in Ethereum ecosystem technology and ecosystem
By 2025, the Ethereum ecosystem is expected to undergo significant developments, with notable breakthroughs both in technology and in the broader ecosystem.In terms of scaling, the number of Layer-2 and Layer-3 solutions is expected to exceed 2,000, allowing Ethereum to achieve a true scaling factor of 200x. After the Pectra upgrade, the increase in blob capacity will further reduce the costs of rollups, driving daily transaction volume to surpass 100 million. These improvements will provide the Ethereum network with greater processing capacity, laying a strong foundation to support large-scale user adoption.
The widespread adoption of Account Abstraction technology will also be a key advancement. The implementation of EIP-3074 and EIP-7702 will lead to over 25% of onchain transactions adopting account abstraction, enabling users to pay gas fees using any token. With the full implementation of EIP-5003, the way users interact with smart contracts will change, improving the usability of Web3 applications. This shift will make it easier for regular users to engage with the Ethereum ecosystem, driving the proliferation of decentralized applications (DApps).
In terms of staking mechanism optimization, EIP-7251 allows validators to stake more than 32 ETH for additional rewards. Additionally, permissionless staking pools are made possible through EIP-6110 and EIP-7002, pushing the total amount of Ethereum staked to exceed 30 million ETH, with annual returns stable between 3%-4%. This mechanism not only enhances network security but also attracts more users to participate in staking.
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology will see widespread adoption within the Ethereum ecosystem. A universal zkVM can generate block proofs in 30 seconds and will be integrated into major L2 networks, supporting privacy-preserving computing functions, and enabling "privacy-as-a-service." These technologies will enhance privacy protection while maintaining synchronization with the Ethereum mainnet’s security, offering users greater choice.
On the network efficiency front, Verkle Trees, EOF optimizations, and PeerDAS improvements in the Amsterdam upgrade will reduce the storage burden on Ethereum validators and enhance the efficiency of Ethereum Virtual Machine execution. Network throughput is expected to increase by more than 10x, significantly boosting Ethereum's performance and supporting the development of future modular blockchain architectures.
Ecosystem integration will also be a crucial focus for 2025. Native interoperability via ZK stacks will become a standard for new rollups, with efficient validity proof clusters gradually taking shape. Measures such as EIP-7623 (which raises calldata costs) and EIP-7639 (which halts service for specific historical data) will optimize network resource allocation. These improvements will lay the groundwork for a modular blockchain network and drive Ethereum's shift from a technology-driven to an application-driven ecosystem.
The Beam Chain upgrade will bring about a major transformation in Ethereum's consensus layer, including reducing block production time to four seconds, lowering the staking threshold to 1 ETH, and introducing zero-knowledge proof technologies. These changes will not only enhance network performance but also increase the degree of decentralization, offering more possibilities for future development.
Prediction 9: RWA and Ethereum RWA outlook
The Ethereum ecosystem is set to experience a new leap forward, as improvements in network performance, technological innovation, and ecosystem expansion complement the anticipated explosion of the RWA (Real-World Asset) market, potentially propelling Ethereum to new heights. As more and more real-world assets are tokenized and moved onto the blockchain, Ethereum not only solidifies its position as the leader in decentralized applications and smart contracts but also plays a key role in bridging traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi). By the end of 2024, the total market capitalization of tokenized assets onchain has surpassed $14 billion, with Ethereum commanding nearly 80% of the market share, becoming the core driver of this emerging sector.
The rise of tokenized assets
Traditional financial giants like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and UBS are accelerating their adoption of tokenized financial assets, and Ethereum, with its mature technical architecture, security, decentralization, and stability, has become the preferred infrastructure platform for institutions. The tokenized government bond market has become a core component of the onchain DeFi ecosystem, with a locked value of over $3 billion, accounting for 21.38% of the total RWA market value. This market is providing DeFi with low-risk, high-liquidity collateral, driving the rapid development of decentralized lending and derivatives markets.
Ethereum, through its smart contract platform and distributed validator network, offers a secure, efficient, and transparent path for the migration of traditional financial assets. Tokenized assets can be traded and settled onchain more quickly and at lower costs, significantly improving the operational efficiency of financial markets. As Ethereum's infrastructure continues to upgrade, network transaction costs are further decreasing, providing stronger support for RWA applications.
Impact on Ethereum’s economic model
The expansion of RWAs is not only an expansion of the ecosystem's scale but also injects new momentum into Ethereum’s economic model. Onchain activity and transaction fees are set to become important sources of Ethereum’s revenue in the future. Market data forecasts that onchain activities related to RWAs could generate over $100 billion in fees annually, which is 40 times the current annual revenue of Ethereum. This will significantly enhance Ethereum's value capture capability, becoming a key pillar of the Ethereum economy.
By the end of 2024, RWA’s TVL is projected to have increased by 25%, reaching $8.4 billion, with Ethereum contributing $1.7 billion in a single month — the highest increase of the year. Stablecoins have played an important role in this trend, with a total market capitalization exceeding $200 billion. Growth in synthetic dollar assets has been especially notable, with a monthly growth rate of 60%, and TVL reaching $1.62 billion, accounting for 52% of the overall RWA market. The deep integration of innovative stablecoins like Ethena and Usual with RWAs has not only spurred innovation in onchain lending and liquidity markets but also further reinforced Ethereum's dominant position in high-value transactions.
Policy and market drivers
Clearer regulation will provide strong support for the rapid expansion of RWAs. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to adopt a more crypto-friendly stance in 2025, while regions like Singapore and Europe are actively advancing regulatory frameworks for tokenized financial assets, injecting more compliance and transparency into the market. This regulatory shift will help attract more institutional capital into the RWA space, clearing the way for Ethereum’s ecosystem to see explosive growth in onchain assets and trading volume.This evolving policy landscape will be crucial for further establishing Ethereum as the leading platform for real-world asset tokenization and its integration into DeFi.
Prediction 10: Solana's continued leadership
Solana continues to solidify its leadership in the high-performance blockchain space, leveraging its technological advantages. By upgrading the Gulf Stream parallel processing technology, Solana's transactions per second (TPS) are expected to exceed 100,000 by 2025. At the same time, the application of state compression technology has lowered the hardware requirements for validator nodes, reducing cost burdens by 30%.
The activity level within the Solana ecosystem reached new highs in 2024, with daily onchain transactions approaching $200 million and the total number of active wallets reaching around 250 million. The number of daily active addresses also reached a record high of 8.8 million. Solana's unique state rent mechanism and validator voting fees have added additional value support to SOL beyond transaction fees, with weekly fee revenue hitting $36.8 million — a 62% year-over-year increase. Notably, Jito, through its MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) activities, contributed over 55% of the fee revenue, further driving the growth of the Solana ecosystem.
Solana's developer ecosystem has also impressed, with up to 3,000 active developers per month and a developer retention rate over the past three months increasing from 31% to over 50%. More than half of Solana’s developers have at least three years of blockchain development experience, ensuring a higher quality of applications in the ecosystem. Leading protocols like Jupiter and Raydium are expected to have a TVL exceeding $20 billion in 2025, capturing more than 35% of the total DEX trading volume on Solana.
Solana is increasingly seen as a key player in the AI-driven casino space, and its integration with AI-driven agents may deepen, particularly in speculative trading, DeFi, and DApp development. Solana is poised to become a central driving force in growing user adoption and technological applications, further cementing its role as a leading blockchain ecosystem.
Prediction 11: The rise and diversification of Move-based public chains
Sui and Aptos, as the leading public chains built on the Move language, are set to achieve significant breakthroughs by 2025. Sui, with its unique parallel execution engine and object-level ownership model, is showing clear advantages in use cases such as gaming, social media, and especially financial applications. By the end of Q4 2024, Sui's TVL has surpassed $2 billion, marking a staggering 2,700% growth year-to-date, propelling it to eighth position in blockchain network TVL rankings. With nearly 8 billion onchain transactions and a total of 68 million accounts, Sui is demonstrating strong ecosystem activity, largely driven by protocols like Navi Protocol and Cetus.
The liquidity of Sui has significantly improved following Circle’s introduction of native USDC and the injection of over $400 million in stablecoins. Additionally, Sui’s zkLogin feature reduces the entry barrier for Web3 users, allowing them to access DApps using their Google or Facebook credentials, which unlocks massive potential in DeFi and blockchain gaming. The launch of the SuiPlay 0x1 gaming console extends Sui’s reach into the hardware sector, enabling blockchain gaming while maintaining compatibility with traditional gaming platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store, drawing in more traditional gamers into the Web3 ecosystem.
On the other hand, Aptos, with its upgraded Move Virtual Machine and LayerZero cross-chain infrastructure, is building a complete DeFi ecosystem, with daily active users expected to exceed 1 million.
In 2024, Aptos experienced explosive growth, with its TVL surging by 19 times year-over-year, reaching nearly $2 billion. The onchain stablecoin ecosystem is expanding rapidly, and the introduction of native USDT and USDC has further boosted liquidity. Aptos has also gained widespread attention from institutional investors, with BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX launching on the Aptos blockchain. In addition, a Spanish bank allocated 2% of its fund to the Bitwise Aptos Staking ETP listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Aptos’s developer ecosystem is thriving, with the number of developers growing by 96% year-over-year and the number of onchain contracts deployed reaching 3,000, showcasing the vitality of the network.
Both public chains are on track to see their native tokens enter the global top ten by market capitalization, with their TVL expected to grow by over five times the current scale.
Prediction 12: Emerging blockchains – Monad and Berachain bring new hope
Monad, as the representative of the next-generation parallel EVM, is rapidly rising, with its ecosystem development and technological innovations drawing significant attention. During its Devnet phase, Monad demonstrated true performance with over 10,000 TPS and a block time of just one second, along with single-slot finality, showcasing the potential of its highly efficient architecture. Monad’s core optimizations include the MonadBFT consensus mechanism, optimistic parallel execution, asynchronous (delayed) execution, and the MonadDB database optimized for the EVM storage model. These technological breakthroughs not only dramatically improve throughput and transaction speed but also significantly reduce network costs. Moreover, Monad’s integration with cross-chain protocols like LayerZero and Wormhole enhances cross-chain interoperability, further enriching its ecosystem.
The recently established Monad Foundation focuses on decentralized governance and ecosystem development, promoting validator-led governance and supporting community-driven improvement proposals. The Foundation also provides detailed documentation, technical resources, and market support to drive DApp development and ecosystem collaboration. Nearly 100 independent protocols and DApps have already committed to building on Monad, and the ecosystem is expected to double in size when the mainnet launches.
Berachain is also rapidly gaining traction, with its ecosystem already attracting over 270 projects, mostly consumer applications across DeFi, GameFi, social, and DePIN, demonstrating its diversity and vitality. In its testnet phase (B2), Berachain has achieved over 14 million transactions, with active addresses surpassing 600,000 and unique addresses reaching 1 million. Its core innovation lies in its unique Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism, which significantly boosts TVL through liquidity staking, providing strong growth momentum for ecosystem projects.
Berachain’s modular design further enhances scalability to support chain abstraction, and combined with infrastructure like Particle Network, it offers developers flexibility and efficient tools. Additionally, its economic model integrates users, developers, and validators’ interests through staking mechanisms and built-in incentives, ensuring the sustainable development of the ecosystem.
By 2025, the L1 market will see a multi-layered competitive landscape. Ethereum will continue to dominate the market cap rankings, while next-generation blockchains like Solana, Sui, Aptos, and others will continue to increase their market share. Emerging public chains like Monad and Berachain, with their technological innovations and unique ecosystems, will inject new vitality into the industry, offering new possibilities for the blockchain space.
Prediction 13: The demonstrative effects of TON and Kaia will attract more internet companies
The success paths of TON and Kaia represent the core models of the next generation of Web3 applications: "user-traffic-centered, hyper-financialized innovation" and "seamless integration of Web2.5 experiences." TON, leveraging the global user base of Telegram with 900 million users, has achieved seamless migration of onchain functionalities through its mini-program ecosystem and the TON Space wallet, becoming a representative of large-scale blockchain applications. By 2024, TON's market cap exceeded $25 billion, with daily onchain transaction volumes reaching $300 million, active wallets surpassing 36 million, and daily active addresses even briefly outpacing Ethereum. This has opened new models for large-scale adoption of onchain services. TON's mini-programs are driving geometric growth in user participation, while its support for stablecoins and cross-chain payment mechanisms lays the foundation for broader Web3 application scenarios.
Kaia, a blockchain platform deeply integrated with Kakao and Line, has quickly attracted users and developers by focusing on the mobile super app ecosystem in the Asian market. Kaia already boasts 30 million unique wallet addresses, has processed over 1.3 billion transactions, and reached a peak daily transaction volume of millions of dollars. Its ecosystem integrates DeFi, NFTs, payments, and AI services, with over 420 DApps and 7 million active users. Kaia's onchain DEX Swap has surpassed $400 million in trading volume, and more DeFi infrastructure is being introduced to enhance liquidity support.
The success of TON and Kaia not only demonstrates the potential for Web3 applications to rapidly expand from social platforms into financial and practical use cases but also showcases how, under the Web2.5 logic, existing traffic platforms can incubate billion-dollar projects. The mini-program model not only lowers the entry barrier for Web3 but also leverages the traffic advantages of super apps to drive high-frequency onchain transactions and diversify use cases. We predict that ecosystems relying on high user bases and traffic conversion capabilities will give rise to more projects with billion-dollar market caps in the future — from onchain payments and decentralized ecommerce to asset management and RWAs. The integration of new application innovations and liquidity will become the next growth engine.
Prediction 14: Decentralized Science (DeSci): A new force reshaping the research economy
For a long time, traditional scientific research systems have faced challenges such as centralized resource allocation, lack of data transparency, and innovation bottlenecks. Decentralized Science (DeSci), powered by blockchain technology and tokenization mechanisms, is reshaping research funding, collaboration, and intellectual property (IP) management, injecting new vitality into the research economy.
The core innovation of DeSci lies in funding distribution and IP management. IP-NFTs not only provide legal protection for research outcomes but also enable researchers, communities, and investors to participate in funding and profit-sharing. For example, Molecule, through its IP-NFT protocol, has allocated $2 million to support several biomedical research projects, with its ecosystem’s TVL reaching $30 million and continuing to grow.
In the field of medical data, DeSci projects are also demonstrating significant potential. AminoChain, through a $5 million funding round, has developed a decentralized biological sample marketplace, helping patients control the rights to their data and benefit from it, while also reducing sample acquisition costs for research institutions. Similarly, GenomesDAO uses a decentralized genomic database to offer solutions for personalized medicine and data privacy.
In scientific publishing, ResearchHub has completed 2,800 peer reviews using token rewards, reducing the average turnaround time to nine days — far superior to the 70-98 days of traditional journals — and significantly improving transparency and efficiency in research.
Additionally, research DAOs like VitaDAO are using governance tokens to enable community-driven research funding, reducing intermediaries and minimizing financial waste. As the regulatory environment becomes clearer and institutional participation increases, it's expected that onchain research funding will expand further, driving the commercialization of intellectual property, open publishing, and the development of medical data management.
The rise of DeSci is pushing scientific research from being closed to open, from centralized to democratized. The transparent mechanisms, efficient collaboration, and data-sharing models of DeSci will have a profound impact on global scientific innovation.
The final word: About OKX Ventures
OKX Ventures is unwavering in its commitment to embracing the future of decentralized development, which goes far beyond mere financial returns. For us, decentralization isn’t just a direction for technological innovation, but a force that disrupts tradition and reshapes industry order, carrying deep reflections on individual freedom, value distribution, and social structure. We understand that the true force behind driving decentralization isn’t simply financial support, but a comprehensive empowerment of resources, strategic collaboration, and technological innovation, which truly brings the decentralization philosophy to life. OKX Ventures is forward-looking and consistently centers its investment philosophy on supporting decentralized innovation, rather than chasing short-term financial returns.
We're not traditional financial investors. We're not just the ones providing funds, but are also providing services, offering resources, and empowering entrepreneurs as partners. In this regard, OKX Ventures is committed to becoming a long-term supporter and advocate for projects, walking alongside every entrepreneur throughout their growth journey. Our focus is not only on discovering outstanding teams, products, and technologies, but more importantly, on helping these innovative projects solidify their position in the market through resource integration and deep empowerment, thereby truly unlocking their potential.
At the same time, OKX Ventures plays the role of a connector, becoming a crucial bridge between projects and the OKX Group. Through deep collaboration with the OKX ecosystem, OKX Ventures provides projects with a multi-dimensional support platform, including the OKX Wallet, NFT Marketplace, XLayer, and more, helping projects gain strategic support across technology, marketing, users, and ecosystem. OKX Ventures leverages OKX's years of industry experience and expertise to provide platform resources and industry chain support for blockchain projects, helping them stand out in a competitive environment.
What we care about is the intrinsic development of the industry itself, not short-term market fluctuations. OKX Ventures is more focused on real innovation in the industry — not just theoretical breakthroughs, but new, actionable applications, tangible user growth, and steady industry expansion. We believe that with the maturation of blockchain technology and the continuous expansion of use cases, the decentralized industry will enter a profound period of growth in the next three to five years, with significant market opportunities to follow. OKX Ventures will continue to stand at the forefront of this trend, with deep industry insights, powerful resource advantages, and long-term strategic vision, supporting industry innovation and driving the global application and profound impact of blockchain technology.
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