Onchain activity has declined sharply across several major networks, with 11 blockchains seeing a decline in vigorous addresses last year, according to Nansen’s data.

Ronin fell the most – 70%, while Bitcoin saw a decline of 7.2%. Several Ethereum Layer 2 networks made the list.

Nansen’s data also showed a decline in transaction activity on many of the same networks. ZKsync saw one of the biggest declines, with transactions down 90%.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s base layer saw a 25% escalate in vigorous addresses and a more than 20% escalate in transaction volume, even as debate continued over Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap and concerns about liquidity fragmentation in Layer 2 networks.

Networks with the biggest drops in usage

Pixels is a popular game that was ported to Ronin from Polygon in the second half of 2023. At the time, Ronin had approximately 20,000 daily vigorous users before the arrival of Pixels caused a surge in activity, briefly making Ronin the second most vigorous network in terms of daily users.

By December 2024, Pixels was registering approximately 300,000 daily vigorous users, according to DappRadar. Since then, the game’s popularity has declined, and with it, Ronin’s online activity has declined, demonstrating the network’s dependence on hit games.

Several Ethereum Layer 2 networks have also seen a drop in usage as airdrop activity declines. The ZKsync token airdrop claim began in June 2024. The network stated that almost 700,000 wallets were eligible, while refuting criticism about Sybil’s filtering. Nansen’s data showed that more than 40% of the largest airdrop wallets immediately sold their allocations. Scroll also appeared on the list after an airdrop in October 2024, after which onchain activity declined.

Arbitrum saw a 3% decline in vigorous addresses, although its approximately 31 million users still place it among the top 10 networks in terms of activity. The Ethereum bulk held an airdrop in 2023, with transaction volume increasing 36% over the past year to approximately 734.5 million, surpassing Ethereum’s 507 million transactions. Arbitrum drew its business from tokenized assets, including 500 U.S. stocks stamped online by Robinhood.

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Base and Optimism stood out among Ethereum’s Layer 2 networks. Both saw an escalate in the number of vigorous addresses and transaction volume. The database does not have a native token and has never conducted an airdrop. Onchain activity has increased with interest in areas such as memecoins, artificial intelligence applications and decentralized exchanges.

Solana recorded the most vigorous addresses in the industry with over 1 billion, followed by Tron and Ethereum. The BNB network saw a 159% escalate in the number of vigorous addresses, while Bitcoin was the only network in the top five to see a decline with a 22% drop in transactions.

What dips do and don’t show

The data showed little consistent relationship between onchain usage and token prices. The price of Solana has fallen over the past year despite a 66% escalate in the number of vigorous addresses, while the price of the BNB token (BNB) has increased with increased network activity.

Year-over-year declines do not necessarily indicate final problems in the networks concerned. Onchain activity can fluctuate wildly as applications migrate, incentive programs expire, or users move between networks, especially for newer networks that are just establishing their core employ cases.

Telegram-related blockchain The Open Network (TON) also saw a 47% drop in vigorous addresses and a 51% decline in transaction volume, a turnaround after excessive growth in 2024. Telegram-based mini-games drove much of this earlier activity, attracting users beyond the platform’s typical crypto audience.

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Hamster Kombat was one of the most renowned examples. The tapping-based game lowered the barrier to entry with basic mechanics and attracted a lot of interest from users anticipating a future token airdrop. According to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, the viral game attracted 239 million users in three months, with more than 130 million of them qualifying for the airdrop in delayed September.

Nansen data shows that on September 30, the number of vigorous TON addresses peaked at around 2.5 million per day. Since then, activity has declined as Hamster Kombat-related engagement has declined, highlighting how short-lived spikes can distort year-over-year comparisons.

Several networks were still in employ after the hype

Blockchain data from the past year shows that onchain activity is rapidly shifting between networks rather than remaining anchored to any single chain. Usage declined most on blockchains, where activity was centered around a miniature number of apps, incentives or viral moments.

At the same time, these declines do not automatically mean a broader ecosystem failure. In several cases, activity declined after periods of excessive growth, highlighting how annual comparisons can be distorted by noise cycles, air shedding, or short-term applications.

Solana offers a useful contrast. While memecoin activity increased throughout 2024 and early 2025 and then tapered off towards the end of the year, the surge also brought users, liquidity, and applications that continued to support the network.

Solana’s daily vigorous address count peaked above 9 million on October 22, 2024, during the peak of memecoin trading. In December, the daily number of users ranged from 2 to 3 million. Although this represented a pointed pullback from peak levels, activity remained consistently higher than before the boom.

Much of last year’s decline in onchain activity was driven by short-term profit motives, but networks like Solana, BNB Chain and Base showed signs of maintaining usage despite viral surges, setting them apart from networks that have seen sharper changes.

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