AVAX and NEAR surge together: capital spillover or a revival of the Layer 1 narrative?
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AVAX and NEAR surge together: capital spillover or a revival of the Layer 1 narrative?
Is the mainnet back up again?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsText: shushu
Since the crypto market entered a bull run, older-generation Layer 1 blockchains such as Near and Fantom have largely remained stagnant—aside from Solana and Avalanche. However, recently, as Bitcoin hits new highs, native tokens of these established chains have gradually regained momentum. Among them, FTM has repeatedly attracted smart money inflows over recent days, while NEAR has reached its year-to-date high amid the ongoing AI boom.
Riding the AI Wave: "Conference Hype" Revives NEAR's Ecosystem
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, announced he will participate in the "Transforming AI" panel discussion during NVIDIA’s GTC24 conference on March 20—a session also featuring NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Following this announcement, NEAR briefly surged past $5 and has since climbed to over $8 at the time of writing.
In February 2023, NEAR stated that its protocol could serve as infrastructure supporting next-generation AI use cases, creating a value layer for setting rules and pricing data, which different applications and protocols can leverage in an open, fair, and transparent manner. NEAR has also partnered with consumer shopping analytics platform Cosmose AI to build a stablecoin payment system enabling low-fee cryptocurrency purchases.
Meanwhile, the meme coin BLACKDRAGON within the NEAR ecosystem has once again "resurrected," surging 700% from its lows. At the time of writing, it trades at $0.0(7)8 with a 24-hour gain of 15%.
Gaming + Meme Coins Drive Broad Gains Across Avalanche Ecosystem
On March 11, South Korean game publisher Nexon Group announced that its 2D massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), *MapleStory*, will partner with Ava Labs to launch a Web3 version called *MapleStory Universe* on the Avalanche network. Since its debut in 2003, *MapleStory* has been one of the earliest online games to popularize the free-to-play model. It now operates servers across the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries, claiming over 180 million users throughout its 20-year history.
The first title, *MapleStory N*, will allow players to create their own game worlds and earn Web3 rewards. While the announcement did not specify the exact nature of these incentives, the project’s website emphasizes NFTs as central to its value ecosystem. Nexon plans to release the PC version of *MapleStory N* on Avalanche by the end of this year.
Earlier, the Avalanche Labs development team rolled out the Durango upgrade and introduced “Teleporter,” enhancing interoperability within its subnet ecosystem. At this pivotal moment, launching a well-known gaming franchise on Web3 has led to significant price increases across the ecosystem. At the time of writing, AVAX trades at $54.55, up 15.88% in 24 hours; Gamer Arena (GAU) is priced at $0.11, up 41.5%; Joe (JOE) stands at $0.7372, gaining 16.3%.
Similar to NEAR, meme coins on Avalanche have also revived. COQ has surged over 300% from its bottom. At the time of writing, COQ trades at $0.0(5)58, with a 24-hour increase of 3%.
Backed by Telegram, TON Gains Amid Binance Listing Speculation
Another veteran Layer 1 blockchain, TON, has seen strong gains fueled by developments related to Telegram.
On February 28, Telegram officially announced that its advertising platform would expand to nearly 100 new countries, allowing channel owners in those regions to receive 50% of revenue generated from ads displayed in their channels. To ensure fast and secure ad payments and withdrawals, Telegram stated it would exclusively use the TON blockchain. This revenue-sharing mechanism aims to create a virtuous cycle where content creators can cash out their Toncoins or reinvest them to promote and upgrade their channels.
Following the announcement, TON briefly spiked more than 27%. At the time of writing, it trades at $4.39, up 29.5% in 24 hours.
On March 1, Binance launched TON perpetual contracts with 1–50x USDT-margined leverage, fueling speculation about a potential spot listing and further boosting price momentum.
Smart Money Flows Into FTM—Ecosystem Warrants Attention
Since early March, smart money has flowed into Fantom’s native token FTM multiple times. On March 3, according to Nansen data, FTM ranked among the top assets in 24-hour smart money inflows, alongside MKR and ZETA, with approximately $1.53 million flowing into FTM. The following day, FTM briefly broke above $0.7, posting a 24-hour gain of 30.56%. As monitored by Spot On Chain, a whale that purchased 4.71 million FTM (worth ~$2.69 million) via Gemini and Airswap two days prior had already realized unrealized profits of $600,000 within just two days.
On March 5, FTM once again emerged as a major destination for smart money, attracting around $1.79 million in inflows and ranking among the top entries on the Smart Money 24-hour inflow list alongside RNDR and BEAM. At the time of writing, FTM trades at $0.83, up 2.5% in 24 hours.
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