- CoinMarketCap has released its H1 2023 report.
- The firm tips zkSync Era as a key player to watch.
- Other themes to watch include Bitcoin ETFs and liquid staking derivatives.
The crypto markets appear to be undergoing a resurgence in 2023 after a turbulent 2022 filled with industry collapses.
As different narratives emerge to support the continuation of this market recovery, CoinMarketCap has tipped zkSync Era, a popular Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution based on zero-knowledge rollups, as a theme to watch.
zkSync Tipped as a Key Player
In its report for the first half of 2023, published on Wednesday, July 19, CoinMarketCap listed zkSync Era as a key player to watch for the year’s second half.
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The firm suggested that the popular zkRollup would likely continue its meteoric H1 rise in H2, citing airdrop speculations and the large number of products set to launch on the network.
Launched in March 2023 as the first zkRollup to achieve mainnet deployment, zkSync Era has become one of the most popular Ethereum scaling solutions. While other zkRollups like Polygon zkEVM have entered the fray, zkSync Era continues to dominate in terms of total value locked (TVL).
As highlighted by CoinMarketCap, zkSync Era’s TVL peaked at $686 million at the end of H1 2023 behind only Arbitrum and Optimism, which ended the period with $5.56 billion and $2.12 billion in TVL, respectively.
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On Monday, July 18, the network launched an upgrade dubbed Boojum with significant implications for its hyperchains vision and decentralization.
Meanwhile, the zkSync rollup was not the only key theme highlighted by CoinMarketCap.
More Themes to Watch
In the H1 report, CoinMarketCap also tipped Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real-world asset tokenization, and liquid staking derivatives among themes to watch in H2 2023.
Despite the crypto market resurgence in H1, CoinMarketCap noted that Q2 was relatively flat. Dubbing it “a lost quarter in the crypto world,” the firm highlighted that the total crypto market cap ended the period at approximately $1.17 trillion, similar to its close in Q1, even though it marked a 48% year-to-date increase.
At the time of writing, the total crypto market has slightly increased, sitting at about $1.2 trillion.
On the Flipside
- zkSync Era’s TVL is declining sharply in July, per data from L2Beat. When writing, the network’s TVL is $554 million.
- The bulk of the activity on the network has been attributed to airdrop farming.
Why This Matters
CoinMarketCap’s recognition of zkSync as a major theme to watch in 2023 speaks to the growing influence and popularity of the Ethereum scaling solution.
Read this to learn why zkSync’s Boojum upgrade matters:
How zkSync Era’s Boojum Upgrade Boosts Decentralization and Cuts Fees
Find out how Chainlink’s CCIP tackles cross-chain security concerns:
