The State of Multi-Chain Development in 2024

In 2021, "multi-chain" meant supporting Ethereum and maybe BSC. In 2024, it's a completely different landscape.

The Numbers Tell the Story

We analyzed 1,200 Web3 projects launched in 2024. Here's what we found:

• 68% launched on 2+ chains simultaneously

• 34% support 5+ chains

• Only 12% are Ethereum-only (down from 67% in 2021)

The average Web3 app now integrates with 3.4 different chains. That's not a prediction—that's today's reality.

Why Multi-Chain Matters

1. Users are everywhere Ethereum has high gas fees. Polygon offers cheap transactions. Arbitrum has the best DeFi liquidity. Base has the Coinbase users. Your users don't care about your infrastructure choices—they're wherever the fees are low and the UX is good.

2. Liquidity is fragmented Total Value Locked (TVL) across chains:

• Ethereum: $47B (down from 95% market share in 2021)

• Arbitrum: $12B

• Polygon: $8B

• Optimism: $6B

• Base: $4B

If you're only on Ethereum, you're missing 40% of the market.

3. Different chains, different strengths Gaming projects launch on Polygon for low fees. DeFi protocols use Arbitrum for composability. NFT projects choose Base for Coinbase integration. There's no one-size-fits-all anymore.

The Developer Challenge

Supporting multiple chains isn't trivial. Each chain has:

• Different RPC endpoints and providers

• Varying gas mechanics and fee structures

• Unique transaction lifecycle patterns

• Chain-specific bugs and quirks

We surveyed 500 Web3 developers. The average team spends 23% of development time on multi-chain infrastructure—time not spent on product features.

What's Coming in 2025

Chain abstraction will mature. Users shouldn't need to know which chain they're on. We'll see more account abstraction implementations that handle cross-chain transactions seamlessly.

Infrastructure will consolidate. Managing 10+ RPC providers is unsustainable. Unified API platforms will become standard.

New L2s will keep launching. We're tracking 40+ Layer 2 projects in development. The fragmentation will get worse before it gets better.

The Bottom Line

Multi-chain isn't optional anymore. The question isn't "should we support multiple chains?" but "how do we do it without derailing our roadmap?"

That's the problem we're solving at Tokra.