The crypto market is currently undergoing a significant change in the way success is measured by the network. Total Value Locked (TVL) has traditionally been used to measure success, but the crypto community is now prioritizing Monthly Active Addresses (MAA) to better reflect network usage in actual transactions and retail adoption of the network. Data from Phoenix Group shows that there is a stark contrast between active users on Layer-1 and Layer-2 protocols in the top three active networks, as measured by user volume.
$BNB Chain and Solana – The heavyweights in retail
Recent statistics show this $BNB Chain continues its dominance based on monthly active addresses with over 40 million users. Much of this growth can be contributed to its low entry costs and deep integration with the largest exchange platform in the world. Not to be ignored: Solana had over 23.7 million MAAs and a unique daily user count of 3.2 million, which, combined with the memecoin’s rise, reflects a broader growth trend associated with DEX aggregator platforms like Jupiter.
Ethereum remains the dominant, capital-intensive, institution-focused DeFi hub; However, $BNB Chain and Solana are gaining popularity in the large-scale retail market with lower transaction fees and faster transaction speeds compared to Ethereum. This makes $BNB Chain and Solana are much more attractive for use cases such as microtransactions, gaming and social applications than Ethereum.
The rise of parallel and high-throughput chains
The strange third position on the leaderboard is the Open Network, which had 21.4 million Daily Active Users (DAU) and has maintained this significant growth thanks to a successful strategy focused on the ‘invisibility’ of the technology behind the product (Chain Abstraction). After that, Tron had 14.5 million and Aptos had 11.2 million daily active users closer to NEAR and an impressive 21.4 million.
Aptos represents a new generation of Move-based blockchain and is gaining momentum. A recent report from Messari confirms that Aptos continued to increase user retention through its strategic partnerships with Asian markets and the rise of its gaming ecosystem. These trends indicate that users are increasingly preferring networks where they can achieve sub-second finality and don’t have the hassle of traditional wallet management.
Layer-2s and the Ethereum Dilemma
Currently, Ethereum’s mainnet has roughly 10.3 million monthly active addresses (MAA), although much of the development on Ethereum takes place outside of Ethereum. Base stands out as a crucial advancement over Ethereum, which currently secures a spot in the top 10 for MAA usage, with approximately 5 million MAAs. The way Ethereum has evolved points to a clear trend, where it continues to settle into the role of a major settlement layer, while most daily user activities steadily transition to the Layer-2 solutions instead.
Conclusion
The April 2026 blockchain landscape has gone beyond just building platforms, and there is tremendous competition between different platforms for user adoption. Bitcoin and Ethereum are blockchains with the highest market capitalization $BNB Chain, Solana and Near are at the forefront when it comes to daily use.
According to the information provided by developers and investors, liquidity is inversely proportional to the growth of the number of users. This could indicate that there are a large number of users who have left multiple blockchains for various reasons; Some of these reasons may include streamlined processes, easier ways to interact with applications, and lower transaction costs.