Ronin’s DeFi TVL Grows 149% YoY, Boosted by RON Token’s 30% Price Rise

Ronin, the Layer 1 blockchain created by Sky Mavis, saw a remarkable 149% increase in DeFi TVL compared to the previous year, attaining $147 million in Q3 2024.

Several elements are driving this expansion. One of the primary drivers, however, was the significant rise in the price of the RON token.

Rising Demand for Ronin’s DeFi and NFTs

As per Messari’s most recent report, Ronin’s DeFi TVL climbed from $59 million in Q3 2023 to $147 million in Q3 2024. This increase was enhanced by a 30% rise in the price of the RON token and broader ecosystem participation. Concurrently, native token TVL experienced a decline of 36%, falling from 128 million to 82 million tokens, suggesting decreased involvement.

This may be attributed to reduced token-locking incentives, a pivot towards gaming and NFTs, and a trend of holding RON tokens. The number of RON holders surged by 11,611%, reaching 527,000 in Q3 2024, marking a 20% increase since Q2.

Notably, Katana DEX commands a significant 99% share of the overall DeFi TVL on the Ronin network, while the next two largest platforms, Sablier Finance and MetaLend, account for only 0.0029% and 0.77%, respectively. As the primary decentralized exchange on Ronin, Katana facilitates liquidity and token swaps for assets such as RON, AXS, and SLP. Although Katana’s TVL dipped by 9% QoQ from $165 million in Q2 2024 to $150 million in Q3 2024, it exhibited a 154% year-over-year increase, rising from $59 million in Q3 2023 to $150 million in Q3 2024.

This year, Ronin’s daily NFT purchasers consistently outnumbered sellers, highlighting a tendency towards holding. In Q3 2024, both buyers and sellers increased by 17%, with buyers rising from 4,400 to 5,100 and sellers from 3,700 to 4,300. This increase followed a record peak in June, spurred by the Coinbase Learn initiative and Ronin Carnival, which included Axie Infinity missions, a $1 million competition from Apeiron, and complimentary trials from 0xScope. These events resulted in peak activity with 28,000 buyers and 20,000 sellers.

Expanding the view, Ronin’s daily transactions rose by 24% QoQ in Q3, increasing from 1.8 million to 2.2 million. This growth was fueled by new games and collaborations. However, average daily transaction fees dropped by 20% QoQ, decreasing from $7,000 to $5,000, likely reflecting Ronin’s focus on ecosystem enlargement.

When compared to Q3 2023, daily transactions surged by 2,300%, escalating from 90,000 to 2.2 million, while transaction fees soared by 4,000%, rising from $134 to $5,000. Active addresses also expanded by 23% QoQ, while new addresses grew by 22%.

Security Challenges for Ronin

Famed for being the target of the most expensive DeFi breach, Ronin suffered a hack in 2022 when an attacker exploited weak private key security to authorize a fraudulent transaction, resulting in a loss of $624 million from the cross-chain bridge.

In August 2024, the platform faced another breach, suffering a loss of $12 million due to a flaw in a smart contract introduced by a recent upgrade.