coindesk.com
Investors have bridged over $30 million in ether and stablecoins to Blast, the latest Ethereum layer 2 network, just hours after the project went live late on Monday.
The inflow is evidence of strong demand for Layer 2 networks or protocols that operate on top of a layer 1 blockchain, such as Ethereum, to reduce bottlenecks related to speed, cost and scalability. Bridges are blockchain-based tools that allow users to transfer tokens between different networks.
Also driving the charm is Blast's unique design: Depositors start earning yields on the transferred ether alongside BLAST points.
“Blast natively participates in $ETH staking, and the staking yield is passed back to the L2’s users and dapps,” the team said in a post Tuesday. ‘We’ve redesigned the L2 from the ground up so that if you have 1 $ETH in your wallet on Blast, over time, it grows to 1.04, 1.08, 1.12 $ETH automatically.”
Users have to wait until the launch of the mainnet in February before they can withdraw any funds from the network or participate in on-chain activities. As such, Blast is invite-only as of Tuesday, requiring a code from invited users to gain access. Besides, the BLAST points can be redeemed starting in May.
Of the total funds bridged, data shows over $19 million in ether has been staked on Lido, where it is set to earn as much as 4% annualized yield. Another $3 million is on Maker, while a smaller tranche of $150,000 in dai (DAI) stablecoins sits idle in the wallet.
Users who bridge stablecoins receive Blast’s auto-rebasing stablecoin, USDB. The yield for USDB comes from MakerDAO’s on-chain T-Bill protocol.
Blast raised over $20 million in a round led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto and is headed by pseudonymous figurehead @PacmanBlur, one of the co-founders of $NFT marketplace Blur.
@PacmanBlur said in a separate post that Blast was an extension of the Blur ecosystem, letting Blur users earn yields on idle assets while improving the technical aspects required to offer sophisticated $NFT products to users.
BLUR prices rose 12% in the past 24 hours following the release of Blast.