Ronin’s DeFi TVL rises 149% YoY, boosted by 30% rise in RON token price

Ronin, the layer 1 blockchain developed by Sky Mavis, saw a significant 149% year-over-year increase in DeFi TVL, reaching $147 million in Q3 2024.

Several factors influence this growth. One of the main catalysts, however, was the RON token price surge.

DeFi and NFT demand for Ronin increases

According to Messari’s latest report, Ronin’s DeFi TVL increased from $59 million in Q3 2023 to $147 million in Q3 2024. This figure was boosted by a 30% increase in the price of the RON token and wider adoption of the ecosystem. At the same time, the native token TVL fell by 36%, from 128 million to 82 million tokens, indicating lower participation.

This could be due to decreased token locking incentives, a shift toward gaming and NFTs, and a preference for holding RON tokens. RON holders increased by 11,611%, reaching 527,000 in the third quarter of 2024, with growth of 20% compared to the second quarter.

Interestingly, Katana DEX holds a dominant 99% share of the total DeFi TVL on the Ronin network, while the next two largest protocols, Sablier Finance and MetaLend, contribute only 0.0029% respectively. and 0.77%. As the leading decentralized exchange on Ronin, Katana manages liquidity and token swaps for assets such as RON, AXS, and SLP. While Katana’s TVL fell 9% quarter-on-quarter from $165 million in Q2 2024 to $150 million in Q3 2024, it saw a 154% year-over-year increase from 59 million in the third quarter of 2023 to $150 million in the third quarter of 2024.

Throughout the year, daily buyers of Ronin NFTs have generally outnumbered sellers, indicating a preference for holding. In the third quarter of 2024, buyers and sellers increased by 17%, with the former increasing from 4,400 to 5,100 and the latter from 3,700 to 4,300. This growth follows a record in June this year, fueled by the Coinbase Learn campaign and Ronin Carnival, which featured Axie Infinity missions, a million-dollar competition from Apeiron, and free trials from 0xScope. These events led to peak engagement with 28,000 buyers and 20,000 sellers.

Zooming out, Ronin’s daily transactions increased 24% quarter-on-quarter in Q3, from 1.8 million to 2.2 million. This growth was driven by new games and partnerships. However, average daily transaction fees fell 20% from the previous quarter, from $7,000 to $5,000, likely due to Ronin’s focus on expanding its ecosystem.

Compared to Q3 2023, daily transactions increased by 2,300%, from 90,000 to 2.2 million, and transaction fees increased by 4,000%, from $134 to $5,000. Active addresses also increased by 23% quarter-on-quarter, while new addresses increased by 22%.

Ronin’s security concerns

Known for being the victim of the costliest DeFi hack, Ronin was hacked in 2022 when an attacker used inadequate private key security to authorize a fraudulent transaction, draining $624 million from the cross-chain bridge.

In August 2024, the platform suffered another attack, losing $12 million due to a smart contract flaw introduced by a recent upgrade.