As we’ve discussed before, in the tech world consolidation of activity around specific platforms is a good thing. Consolidation attracts more developers who build more applications that can then bring in more users and create a virtuous cycle, like what happened for smartphones when consolidation around iOS / Android helped mobile rise to dominance.
In the blockchain ecosystem, we’re seeing consolidation of activity happening around the Ethereum ecosystem with both interest in Ethereum mainnet and explosive growth in Ethereum layer 2s most notably Base (which Cymbal launched support for 2 weeks ago). Ethereum has become the blockchain equivalent of Android — the most popular blockchain supported by innovative partners like Coinbase, Polygon and others. Which begs the question: is there a blockchain equivalent of iOS, a strong second platform that is consolidating developer activity leading to more compelling apps? We think the answer is Solana, which recently set a year high price, tripling since the beginning of 2023.
While Ethereum is the market leader, Solana is clearly a second breakout platform with growing concentration of both developers and users. Like iOS, Solana offers superior performance (both speed and low transaction costs), which it achieves through a more integrated and centralized platform (also just like iOS). It’s no surprise that some of the most innovative and popular consumer web3 apps (such as Magic Eden, Audius, and StepN) have been built on Solana.
At Cymbal, the first blockchain we developed on was actually Solana, which we used for our inaugural Royale season back in January. 10 months later, we’re returning to our roots with the launch of Solana support in the Cymbal human readable block explorer! Starting today, you can use Cymbal to discover realtime information and insights on over 10 million wallets, 50k active NFT projects, and 35 million tokens that we’re tracking on Solana.
To navigate between the three blockchains Cymbal supports — Ethereum, Base and now Solana — just flip the blockchain toggle at the top of the screen and start browsing stats, rankings, and easy-to-understand text summaries generated by Cymbal AI. Or, use our universal search bar to query across our entire dataset of over 15 million wallets and the 200+ million tokens that they interact with.
Explore the exciting worlds of Ethereum, Base and Solana today at Cymbal.xyz and let us help you navigate these blockchains like a total pro!
