New blockchains spring forth every year trying to provide solutions to the trilemma of blockchain technology: scalability, security and decentralization. Innovations such as ZkRollups, para chains, etc have sprung forth and are recording success to certain degrees. When a new blockchain is introduced, crypto users look at the technology behind the blockchain, the team building the blockchain (their transparency) and the tokenomics behind the blockchain (if any, Base blockchain has no tokenomics because it has no governing coin). What happens when an older project introduces a fresh new spin on an innovation? You get Manta!

Manta Network introduced a new chain last year and let me say that it could be the hottest new L2 of the year because they are cooking. One month ago, Manta's TVL sat at a decent $16.61 million. Fast forward to the present and its TVL has grown over 27 times to an impressive $460 million. This means one thing, there's serious alpha on that network and people are going to cash out big time. Aptos, Sui, Sei, Mantle, Core and more are a few notable mentions of blockchains in the past 2 years with impressive TVL growth during their infancy stages look at how they turned out and the amount made by active network users in the form of airdrops and other rewards, which were also live on Manta. Thus it begs the question of what lies in store for those who got in early.

A sudden rise in Manta's TVL in December 2023. Source: DefiLlama

Remember: To make money in crypto, you must be early and take action when early.

As a rising star gaining enormous traction, let's dive further into Manta.

Manta Network makes use of ZK technology, with their mission to "deliver the best developer experience that enables ZK applications" which are applied on two chains: Manta Atlantic and Manta Pacific. Manta Atlantic is a Parachain on Polkadot while Manta Pacific is an L2 on Ethereum that uses Celestia for data availability. It is the first EVM-native chain built specifically for Zk-applications and is the modular L2 built for ZK applications and dapps that want to offer lower gas fees with great user experience. We will look at the Pacific chain.

Pacific is the chain drawing all the attention to Manta recently because of the ZK-applications. As the first Ethereum L2 to integrate Celestia’s revolutionary modular data availability layer and Caldera's OP Stack Rollup solution, this decouples transaction data from consensus, significantly reducing gas fees and enabling a more sustainable network. another unique thing about Pacific is the fact that it is the first EVM-native L2 that uses this technology, allowing solidity developers the ease to create applications. You can read up more on Pacific here

So why did The network experience a surge in its total value locked?

They had a promotion going on called "New Paradigm" where users interact with the Manta ecosystem, invite friends, deposit ETH and USDC, and more. They receive a ton of incentives in return. There is a list of five distinct sources of yield for deposited assets.

Deposited ETH and USDC earn yield from ETH staking and US T-bills respectively. They also partnered with StakeStone and Mountain Protocol to provide these rewards and airdrop incentives are layered on top.

These tokens are liquid, allowing defi traders to use them across the ecosystem and earn even more yield and rewards and, right now, a lot of capital is chasing these rewards. The program has gone beyond the point for new participants to join.

With more campaigns to run and over 100 dApps on chain, with most having no token, expect to see more money flow into Manta as early alphas take their position.

Last thing, Manta did run a stealth airdrop campaign for its active and loyal users. This may be a key insight into how future drops will play out, so if you want in, position yourself and start using Manta. Manta season may be here.

Till next time.