Axelar bridges and the return of Solana’s Mango Markets
Bringing you the week's most interesting findings from community data analysts at MetricsDAO.
Metrics Minds Weekly #3
Bringing you the week's most interesting findings from community data analysts at MetricsDAO.
Axelar bridges and web3 interconnectedness
MetricsDAO community analysts Popex404 and adriaparcerisas each explored how connected the web3 ecosystem is by analyzing cross-chain activity on the Axelar Network. They looked at Satellite, the oldest and most popular bridge on Axelar for users to transfer assets between Ethereum and Osmosis, and Squid, the newest bridge on the network. Here is what you need to know:
In March, Squid protocol, the newest bridge, experienced a spike in the number of transactions and users. This happened in the aftermath of the SVB collapse on March 11. Crypto quests, such as the DeFi Voyage from Moonbeam, also helped Squid gain more users that month.
Despite Squid's surge, Satellite continues to be the preferred choice by the biggest users (whales) to move their assets. Analysts suggested that to attract the whales, Squid might need to offer lower transaction fees between Ethereum and Osmosis, its most popular route.
Centralized exchanges are by far the most popular sector for bridging, followed by decentralized apps, layer 2 solutions, and tokens.
Mango Markets - rising from the ashes
Using Solana data, analyst Sbhn_NP87-17 analyzed Mango version 4, a popular DeFi trading platform. The exchange has been seeing increased activity since its launch in December 2022. Over 17 million transactions have been recorded on this platform, higher than two of its past versions despite having much lower user numbers.
Despite an exploit in October 2022, Mango continues to attract new users. Recently, it surpassed a bigger DeFi rival Zeta in daily users, which is a remarkable recovery for Mango Markets. This puts Mango v4 on course to perhaps one day match the success of v3, which had both the highest activity and significant growth until the exploit.
Check out the analysts' full dashboards to learn more:
- Popex404: Axelar Cross-Chain Activity | Twitter
- Adriaparcerisas: Examining Cross-chain Activity on Axelar | Twitter
- Sbhn_NP87-17: Mango Markets New Era | Twitter
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