Ethereum: Determining How Good or Bad the Network is in the Q2

In its new study titled “State of Ethereum Report — Q2, 2022,” Bankless reviewed the performance of the Ethereum Network and its ecosystem successfully in the second quarter of 2022. It detailed the network’s performance under 4 wide categories – Protocol, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Layer 2.

Here are the notable developments within the Ethereum ecosystem in the last quarter.

According to Bankless, the overall cryptocurrency market downtrend that occurred between April and June has decreased the transaction fees paid using the Ethereum network by 33.4% — from $1.91 billion in Q1 to $128 million in Q2. In addition to driving the network revenue fall, the bearish backdrop of last quarter resulted in a 20.6% decrease in the average daily active addresses index. In the first three months of this year, it was 593,404.

The third quarter, on the other hand, has seen a favorable correction thus far. As a result, the Ethereum network’s daily active addresses are expected to reach an all-time high at the end of the quarter.

The amount of Ether staked on the beacon chain increased from 6.01 million in the first quarter to 12.98 million in the previous quarter, a 116 percent increase, as Ethereum plans to move from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).

By the end of Q2, about 0.86% of the entire ETH supply had been pledged. On July 6, the network completed its integration on Sepolia’s testnet without a hitch. With the merger and the Goerli network expected to be completed in the coming weeks, the final merger with the Ethereum mainnet is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Also, Bankless reported that the second quarter of this year was characterized by a decline in the overall value locked (TVL) of DeFi protocols on the Ethereum network.

During this period, TVL fell from $59.42 billion in the first quarter to $3.421 billion in the second quarter — a drop of 42.4%.

The total trading volume of decentralized spot exchanges based on the Ethereum network fell in the second quarter. During the April-June period, the figure fell 9.0%, from $350.54 billion in the first quarter to $319.13 billion at the end of June.

Notably, Bankless observed that ETH’s stake increased by 177.5% in the previous quarter. These are pledged through non-custodial protocols that issue liquid pledged derivatives.