Ronin’s DeFi TVL Grows 149% YoY Driven by 30% RON Token Price Increase

Ronin, the Layer 1 blockchain developed by Sky Mavis, experienced a significant 149% year-over-year increase in DeFi TVL, reaching $147 million in Q3 2024.

There are several factors that influence this growth. One of the main catalysts, however, was the increase in the price of the RON token.

Demand for Ronin’s DeFi and NFTs is growing

According to Messari’s latest report, Ronin’s DeFi TVL grew from $59 million in Q3 2023 to $147 million in Q3 2024. The figure was boosted by a 30% increase in RON token price and wider ecosystem adoption. At the same time, native token TVL fell 36% from 128 million to 82 million tokens, indicating lower participation.

This could be due to less token locking incentives, a shift towards gaming and NFTs, and a preference for holding RON tokens. RON holders increased by 11,611%, reaching 527,000 in the third quarter of 2024, with growth of 20% over the second quarter.

Interestingly, Katana DEX has a commanding share of 99% of the total DeFi TVL on the Ronin network, while the next two largest protocols, Sablier Finance and MetaLend, contribute only 0.0029% and 0.77%, respectively . As Ronin’s main decentralized exchange, Katana powers exchanges of liquidity and tokens for assets such as RON, AXS and SLP. While Katana’s TVL fell 9% quarter-over-quarter from $165 million in Q2 2024 to $150 million in Q3 2024, it saw a 154% year-over-year increase from $59 million in third quarter of 2023 to $150 million in the third quarter of 2024.

Over the course of the year, Ronin’s daily NFT buyers generally outnumbered sellers, indicating a preference to hold. In the third quarter of 2024, both buyers and sellers grew by 17%, the former from 4,400 to 5,100 and the latter from 3,700 to 4,300. This growth followed a record in June of this year, fueled by the Coinbase Learn campaign and Ronin Carnival, which included Axie Infinity missions, a $1 million competition from Apeiron, and free 0xScope trials. These events resulted in maximum engagement with 28,000 buyers and 20,000 sellers.

Breaking down, Ronin’s daily transactions grew 24% in the third quarter, from 1.8 million to 2.2 million. This growth was driven by new games and partnerships. However, average daily transaction fees fell 20% QoT from $7,000 to $5,000, likely due to Ronin’s focus on expanding its ecosystem.

Compared to the third quarter of 2023, daily transactions soared 2,300%, from 90,000 to 2.2 million, and transaction fees increased 4,000%, from $134 to $5,000. Active addresses also grew by 23% each quarter, while new addresses increased by 22%.

Ronin’s security issues

Known for being the victim of the costliest DeFi hack, Ronin was breached in 2022 when an attacker used inadequate private key security to authorize a fraudulent transaction, draining $624 million from the cross-chain bridge.

In August 2024, the platform suffered another attack, losing $12 million due to a smart contract flaw introduced by a recent update.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $600 (Exclusive to CryptoPotato): Use this link to register a new account and receive an exclusive welcome offer of $600 to Binance (full details).

LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers on Bybit – Use this link to register and open a FREE $500 position with any currency!