A new Ethereum Layer-3 network, Degen Chain, has recorded the highest transactions per second (TPS) in the Ethereum ecosystem over the last 24 hours. According to L2BEAT data, Degen’s TPS increased by 62% in the last day, reaching 35.7 TPS, surpassing its underlying blockchain network, the Base ecosystem, which recorded 29.7 TPS. In the same list, Arbitrum One, Ethereum, and zkSync Era were among the top five.
Intense Interest in the Degen Ecosystem
Degen network’s level of 35.7 TPS means that this memecoin-focused ecosystem processed 3.08 million transactions within this one-day period. However, Degen Chain only achieved a trading volume of $819,600 over the last day, placing it 35th among 44 blockchain networks tracked by CoinGecko.
While TPS data is commonly used to measure the scalability limits of a blockchain network, many industry leaders consider it a flawed metric because it does not account for the computational size of each transaction. Steven Goldfeder, a founder at Offchain Labs and a recent commentator on the topic, stated:
“It’s a bit like counting the number of banknotes in your wallet but ignoring whether they are singles, twenties, or hundreds.”
The Degen Ecosystem and the Memecoin Space
The ecosystem, which has become a haven for memecoins, started as a tipping token for users interacting with the Degen channel on Farcaster, initially a decentralized social media platform. According to Thomas Tang, Vice President of Investments at cryptocurrency venture capital firm Ryze Labs, this is a textbook example of how a memecoin project can actually gain social value. Tang commented:
“It gained massive popularity because everyone was tipping each other and holding onto it, which led them to build a Layer-3 ecosystem based on this.”
According to CoinGecko, Degen Chain currently has a total locked value of $4.1 million, while the three-month market value of the DEGEN token is $326 million. Degen Chain is considered an ultra-low-cost Layer-3 blockchain network, created with Arbitrum Orbit and leveraging the settlement layer of Base, an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution.