TechFlow News, October 29 — According to The Block, Anmol Singh, co-founder of Zeta Markets, pointed out that limitations in Ethereum's mainnet infrastructure are driving users, applications, and capital toward Layer 2 solutions and competing public blockchains such as Solana. Data shows that since June, Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) has dropped by nearly $20 billion, while Solana’s TVL has increased from $4.8 billion to $6.3 billion.
Zhou Qi, founder of QuarkChain and EthStorage, noted that Ethereum’s various Layer 2 networks—such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync—each maintain independent liquidity pools, leading to fragmented liquidity. Users must transfer assets via cross-chain bridges, increasing transaction costs and friction. Fragmented liquidity may reduce market efficiency and result in higher slippage during large trades. However, emerging cross-Layer 2 liquidity protocols and native cross-layer transfer solutions are expected to alleviate this issue.
In contrast, Singh emphasized that Solana’s “monolithic” architecture enables transaction processing and liquidity maintenance within a single layer. According to a recent a16z crypto report, Solana has approximately 100 million monthly active addresses, compared to about 57 million across Ethereum and other EVM chains. Notably, four of the top ten market-cap meme coins—Dogwifhat, Bonk, Popcat, and Mew—have been launched on Solana, signaling a shift of new opportunities from Ethereum to Solana.
Joshua Lim, CEO of Arbelos Markets, observed that assets related to Ethereum are stagnating, while investor interest is shifting toward Bitcoin and Solana. Market data indicates that Bitcoin’s market cap share has risen to 56%, the highest since 2021, whereas Ethereum’s share has declined to 12.5%, highlighting a significant shift in investor preferences among major blockchains.
