A New Chapter in the Public Chain Battle: The Rise of Solana and How Other Chains Can Break Through

Looking back at the bull run of the cryptocurrency market in 2021, applications like DeFi, NFT, and GameFi rapidly emerged. At that time, Ethereum's limitations were exposed due to issues like transaction congestion and high fees, providing an opportunity for a new generation of public chains. This gave rise to a large number of public chain projects, such as Solana, attempting to challenge Ethereum's dominance.

These emerging public chains are not only competing on a technical level but are also fiercely contending to attract developers, build communities, and gain capital support, referred to as the "public chain competition." This competition has driven the advancement of blockchain technology, diversified the encryption ecosystem, and laid the foundation for the rise of subsequent new public chains.

However, four years later, this public chain competition seems to have faded from people's view. In the past few years, only Solana has risen from the low point to become another leader in public chains, even threatening Ethereum's position at one point. Although the market capitalization gap remains significant, the market seems to have higher expectations for Solana.

The performance of other public chains is relatively flat. A comparison of market capitalization shows that currently Solana and the public chain of a certain trading platform remain strong, while other public chains, including Ethereum, are still struggling to catch up.

Recently, the founder of a certain trading platform hinted that its public chain will undergo significant changes and innovations in 2025, frequently promoting it on social media, seemingly intending to challenge Solana's brilliant performance over the past year.

In addition to these established public chains, emerging public chains like Sui and Bera are also striving to catch up. However, the market's expectations for public chains are no longer limited to faster and better performance, but rather whether they can provide truly usable application products. This path is full of challenges, and without the recent boost from the MEME craze, Solana's development trajectory might have been different.

Currently, no public chain has launched a truly flagship product. Apart from stablecoins and a few DeFi applications, other directions still lack innovation, and even the once popular Agent has fallen into new difficulties.

For public chain operators, the current competition is no longer limited to marketing and rewards, but has shifted towards substantial product refinement. MEME can be seen as a form of product, but pure MEME is not a sustainable strategy. On-chain PVP will eventually experience fatigue, and in the end, it must return to the users (community) and the product itself.

Looking back at the public chain competition in 2021, that grandeur may be difficult to replicate. In the future, a situation similar to the "hundred groups battle" of the internet may emerge, with competition focusing on users, operations, and practical applications. Considering that L2 can also be seen as a form of public chain, the competition may be more intense than anticipated.

From an investment perspective, certain selection logic of public chains still applies. For example, Solana develops MEME, and other chains can follow suit; SUI focuses on gaming, and other chains can also try. The market is still large enough, and places that can create wealth effects will attract users, increasing the possibility of creating viable products. The market still follows the logic of having prices before products, and this trend is unlikely to change in the short term, after all, the prosperous period of the market has not yet arrived.