Flipside’s “EVM Smart Contract Implementation Snapshot” report reveals that 637.9 million Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contracts have been deployed since January 2022, signaling a seismic shift in developer and user activity on blockchain platforms. Polygon and BNB Smart Chain are leading this wave, with Optimism alone accounting for two-thirds of total EVM smart contract deployments by 2024.
Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, which will take place on March 13 and is expected to lower tier 2 gas rates, could further catalyze the diversification of smart contract implementations, according to the report. Developers are increasingly opting for financially innovative, utility-driven blockchain applications.
Decentralized finance-related contracts in particular are on the rise, with operators in this category now representing 34.7% of all operators as of early 2024, a significant increase from 11.2% in the previous two years. This upturn is consistent with increased trading activity in recent markets and signals a market refocus on this sector.
Conversely, the non-fungible token (NFT) sector has seen a decline, with the number of implementers falling from 18.6% to 8.2% over the same period. This trend signals a potential decentralized finance-focused bull run, which is a departure from the previous NFT-driven surge.
General purpose EVM chains are evolving to specific use cases and defying their original design intentions. Still, the growing number of smart contracts that defy simple categorization points to a landscape ripe for experimentation and diversification at the protocol level.