Solana, the upstart blockchain, has pulled off a stunner. It's beaten Ethereum in weekly fees for the first time ever. The numbers are eye-popping. Solana raked in about $25 million in the week of July 22. Ethereum? A mere $21 million. This isn't just a fluke. Solana's been on fire in 2024. Celebrity coin trading has gone bonkers on its memecoin platforms. Pump.fun and Moonshot are the hot spots. Memecoins are no joke anymore. They've hit a whopping $50 billion in total market cap. Solana's total value locked (TVL) has exploded. It's now around $5.5 billion. That's more than triple since the year kicked off. July 28 was a banner day. Solana hit $5.5 million in daily fees. It's the highest in three months. Where's all this cash coming from? Dan Smith, a data whiz at Blockworks, breaks it down. 58% is from MEV tips. 37% comes from priority transaction fees. "Solana validators and stakers are absolutely eating this cycle," Smith said. No kidding. Staking on Solana is paying off big time. 21.co's data shows cumulative rewards topping $32 million. Current yields? A juicy 7%. Ethereum's still the big dog in TVL. It's got nearly $60 billion locked up. And it's home to 1,135 protocols. But there's a dark side to Solana's celeb coin craze. Most tokens have tanked by over 99%. Even the "winners" are down more than 70%. Cryptocurrency analyst Slorg didn't mince words: "Exactly half are down over 99%, with 7 others being down more than 90%. Let me remind you this is only about a month into their lifespan."

Tron, the blockchain network founded by Justin Sun, has pulled off a surprise win against Ethereum. In the past 24 hours, Tron raked in $1.42 million. Ethereum lagged behind with $844,276. This comes hot on the heels of Ethereum's big moment. On July 23, spot Ether ETFs hit the US market. They pulled in a whopping $2.2 billion. But even with this cash injection, Ethereum fell short. Over the week, its fee revenue was about $600,000 less than Tron's. Talk about a plot twist. Tron's been on a roll since July 23. It's been top dog in revenue generation. The past seven days saw Tron pocket $8.67 million. Ethereum trailed with $8.08 million. Solana, another big player, isn't sitting on the sidelines. It generated $940,009 in 24 hours, beating Ethereum. But its seven-day haul of $6.38 million couldn't touch Tron or Ethereum. Looking at the 30-day picture, Ethereum's still king. It pulled in $52.48 million. Tron came second with $40.2 million. Pump.fun surprised everyone, outperforming Solana with $25.83 million. Justin Sun's not resting on his laurels. He's announced a new trick up his sleeve: a gasless stablecoin solution. Users could make free peer-to-peer transfers. The stablecoins themselves would cover the fees. Sun plans to roll this out on Tron by Q4 2024. Later, he wants to expand to Ethereum and other compatible chains. But it's not all smooth sailing for Tron. On June 26, its total value locked hit a six-month low of $7.5 billion. Ouch. There's more. A whopping 75% of Tron's total deposits are in one app, JustLend. And it's seen a 15% drop in assets over the past month. That's putting all your eggs in one basket. Meanwhile, Tron's parent company is in a legal tussle with the SEC. They're trying to get a lawsuit dismissed. Their argument? The SEC's overstepping by focusing on "predominantly foreign conduct". The SEC sued Tron founder Justin Sun and related entities in March last year. They claim Tron and BitTorrent token sales were unregistered securities offerings. They also accuse Sun of wash trading and paying celebs to promote the tokens. It's a wild ride in the blockchain world. Tron's stealing the show, but for how long? Only time will tell.

Ethereum's onchain activity is booming, despite its price hovering around $3250, while we all hoped for $4000 since ETFs were approved. Layer 2 blockchains are driving this growth. They're transforming how transactions work on Ethereum. Users and investors are flocking to these solutions. The numbers are eye-popping. Ethereum and Layer 2 chains saw onchain activity jump 127% in early 2024. More users and higher transaction volumes are behind this surge. A Coinbase and Glassnode report highlights the trend. Daily active addresses on Ethereum and L2s hit record highs. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, calls L2s the "ultimate playground for action". He's not wrong. These platforms are attracting individuals and profit-hungry institutions alike. L2 chains like Linea, Base, and Arbitrum are killing it. They boast 1.8 million active daily addresses. These solutions offer cheap transactions before finalizing them on Ethereum. It's a win-win for efficiency and security. The Ethereum Dencun upgrade in March 2024 was a game-changer. It slashed transaction fees by 58% in Q2. This happened even as transaction numbers went up. Lower costs made Ethereum more accessible. Users jumped at the chance to get involved. Ethereum's versatility is another draw. Lending, staking, and trading are just a few use cases. The report authors reckon adoption will keep growing. Existing apps are maturing, and new ones are popping up left and right. BlackRock's getting in on the action too. They've launched Ethereum spot ETFs. These products faced some hurdles, but investors are biting. The iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) scooped up 77,000 ETH in days. That's about $277 million, folks. This move by BlackRock is a big deal. They're already top dogs in the Bitcoin ETF market. Now they're doubling down on crypto. It shows how traditional finance and blockchain are getting cozy. Nate Geraci from the ETF Store thinks staking in Ethereum ETFs is inevitable. He reckons it's a question of when, not if. That's good news for the Ethereum ecosystem. But it's not all smooth sailing. Tron's nipping at Ethereum's heels with 81 billion transactions. Competition in crypto is heating up. Blockchain innovation isn't slowing down anytime soon. Buckle up, it's gonna be a wild ride.

John Deaton, a pro-XRP attorney and Republican Senate nominee in Massachusetts, has emerged as a major crypto holder in the political arena. His portfolio is turning heads. Deaton's crypto holdings are no small change. A whopping 80% of his net worth is in Bitcoin or related investments, though it's worth mentioning that the senator has also got stakes in Ethereum, Solana, and XRP (no meme coins, in case you wondered). This news came to light on Wednesday. Fox journalist Eleanor Terret spilled the beans. Deaton's not just a lawyer. He's a Marine vet too. He's been defending cryptocurrencies, especially Ripple, for years. Ripple's been in a nasty legal scrap with the SEC since 2020. The regulator claims they violated securities laws. Deaton's been a key player in Ripple's defense. Now, Ripple's backing Deaton's campaign. They've been throwing serious cash at it. The company's pumped $1 million into a super PAC. It's called the Commonwealth Unity Fund. Legal expert James Murphy, aka "MetaLawMan", set it up. Murphy's got big plans. He wants to see more crypto-friendly faces in Congress. He reckons Deaton's the man for the job. But it's not all smooth sailing. Deaton's up against Elizabeth Warren. She's held her seat since 2013 and isn't a fan of crypto. Warren's got deeper pockets too. Deaton's playing catch-up in the fundraising game. Murphy's not fazed. He told Fox: "We're in it to win it." Meanwhile, XRP's price is feeling the heat. It's down 1.5% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.615. The whole crypto market's taken a hit, with Bitcoin leading the slide on Thursday.

Ethereum and its layer-2 networks are experiencing a massive uptick in user activity. Daily active addresses skyrocketed by 127% in the first half of 2024. This growth stands in stark contrast to Bitcoin's performance. The leading crypto, which is clearly becoming dominated by so-called HODLers, saw a 20% drop in daily active addresses during Q2. What's driving this shift? It's all about the L2s. Layer-2 networks, built on top of Ethereum, are designed to speed up transactions and keep fees low. They're like Ethereum's cooler, faster cousins. These solutions process transactions on separate chains before sending the data back to Ethereum for final recording. Linea, Base, and Arbitrum are leading the L2 pack. Together, they boast a whopping 1.8 million daily active addresses. That's no small potatoes. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder, called L2s "the ultimate playing field for action" back in May. He wasn't wrong. Institutional players and NFT enthusiasts are flocking to these networks in droves. The numbers don't lie. Ethereum and L2 transactions jumped 59% in Q2 2024. But here's the kicker: most of that growth happened on L2s. They're outpacing Ethereum itself by a long shot. "The move onchain is driven by a variety of use cases," according to a recent report. "We expect to see adoption grow as existing use cases mature and innovative new ones take hold." It's not all sunshine and rainbows for Ethereum, though. Total transaction fees on the network dropped by 58% in Q2. But don't panic – this was actually by design. The Dencun upgrade in March slashed fees, making the network more user-friendly. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's been having a rough go of it. Daily active addresses fell 20% in Q2, and daily active entities dropped 16%. It's looking a bit like yesterday's news compared to Ethereum's L2 party.