Fantasy.top Departure Behind: Is the Blast Ecosystem Already in Decline?

Star project departure, Blast ecosystem "loses its luster": a farewell that had been foreshadowed.

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

On July 15th, 2023, at midnight Beijing time, the decentralized card game Fantasy.top from the Blast ecosystem announced that it will migrate to the Base ecosystem and will support users in migrating their assets to the Base network.

As soon as the news broke, the community's reaction was not one of regret, but rather a sense of "finally"—as if the ending that had long been written had been turned to the last page.

Fantasy.top: The "Flagbearer" of the Blast Ecosystem

Fantasy.top is a decentralized social card game based on the Blast network. It attracts a large number of users by transforming the social media performance of KOLs in the cryptocurrency field into NFT cards, combined with gamification mechanisms. Since its mainnet launch on May 1, 2024, Fantasy.top has quickly become a star project in the Blast ecosystem.

According to statistics from DeFiLlama, in the past 24 hours, Fantasy.top contributed 83% of the protocol revenue (approximately $10,566) to the Blast ecosystem; over the past week, the contribution was 78%, and over the past month, it was 56%. Additionally, according to Nansen data, in the past 6 months, Fantasy.top has been the third highest application in terms of user transaction volume on the Blast network.

The existence of Fantasy.top is an important pillar for maintaining the "activity" of the Blast ecosystem. Its migration now undoubtedly adds insult to injury for the already desolate Blast.

Not Just Fantasy.top: The "Exodus Wave" of the Blast Ecosystem

In fact, Fantasy.top is not the first project to escape from Blast. From the overall data and numerous cases of departure, we can clearly see the loss of projects and users within the Blast ecosystem, as well as the downward trend of Blast.

In terms of data, according to DeFiLlama, the total locked value of the Blast ecosystem DeFi is currently only 87 million USD, which has shrunk by over 95% from its peak of 2.2 billion USD. Additionally, data from Nansen shows that the number of daily active addresses on the Blast network exceeded 180,000 at the end of June 2024, but has since declined sharply, remaining in the range of 2,000 to 5,000 in recent months. Furthermore, the daily contract deployment volume has dropped to double digits or slightly over a hundred, while the number of token deployments has even fallen to single digits, indicating a waning enthusiasm among developers.

Source: Nansen

Typical Project Migration Case

• pump.fun: Launching on Solana in January 2024, it was later launched on Blast a month later, but did not receive much attention and ceased operations on Blast a few months later.
• The lottery application Megapot (gambling application, please do not use) will also migrate from Blast to the Base ecosystem starting in March 2025.
• Ethos Network: Originally planned to launch on Blast, it ultimately chose to launch directly on Base. Ethos Network is currently a popular reputation protocol in the Base ecosystem.
• Blast BIG BANG award-winning project Baseline: will also migrate to the Base ecosystem in the later stage.

These cases point to a common conclusion: Blast is facing severe challenges in attracting and retaining projects. Despite being highly anticipated as a "native yield-generating Ethereum Layer 2", its ecological development has clearly failed to deliver on early promises.

Recent Turmoil in the Blast Ecosystem

Recently, negative signals or turmoil surrounding the Blast ecosystem have further intensified market concerns about it:

In May 2025, Blast announced that it would not renew its service agreement with Safe, but would support access to multi-signature wallets through the BrahmaFi frontend or self-hosted frontend. Pacman explained that there are many reasons for this, one of which is that there are already many alternative solutions that support Blast. However, this decision has been interpreted by the outside world as a contraction of the ecological infrastructure.

Next month, the Blast ecosystem DEX Thruster announced the decision to gradually stop the operation of Thruster. The official explanation from Thruster states that this is the result of a comprehensive assessment of Thruster's current situation, expectations, surrounding ecosystem, and future prospects. This also indirectly reflects the developers' lack of confidence in the Blast ecosystem.

Affected by the above events, the Blast ecosystem SocialFi project EarlyFans previously stated, "Given that Blast will no longer renew its service agreement with Safe and the cessation of Thruster's operations, the risk of keeping assets on the Blast network is increasing, and it has withdrawn the LP of EARLY tokens (worth $70,000) from Thruster." Of course, ultimately, EarlyFans has switched to "maintenance mode" and is turning to develop a fully native mobile application 8020.

A series of chain reactions indicate that the trust foundation of the Blast ecosystem is collapsing. When infrastructure collaborations break down and core applications come to a halt, developers and users will naturally choose more stable networks.

Why has Blast moved from the spotlight to decline?

Behind the fall from grace of Blast are multiple factors at play:

1. The significant cooling of NFTs: Blast and Blur are deeply bound together, and the cooling of the NFT market has had a huge impact on Blast.

2. Mismatch between points economy and real demand: Blast rapidly increases TVL with "deposit to mine" and "points for airdrops", but a large number of addresses only come to earn points, and the protocol layer lacks reasons for users to stay.

3. Token Prices: The prices of BLAST and BLUR have dropped over 90% from their historical highs, which has severely undermined the confidence of investors and developers. In the cryptocurrency market, token prices often create a positive feedback loop with ecosystem activity, and the continued sluggishness in prices has further diminished the attractiveness of Blast.

4. Lack of Ecological Diversity: The DApp ecosystem of Blast is far less diverse compared to competitors like Base. Most users only cross-chain to earn airdrop points, and their willingness to actually engage with applications is very low, resulting in a continuous decline in network activity.

5. Narrative Overdraft and Competition: "Native Yield" was once the core selling point of Blast, but when the market lost its freshness towards this narrative, and the ecosystem failed to present breakthrough applications, it became inevitable to be surpassed by competitors.

Summary

The departure of Fantasy.top is undoubtedly a footnote to the waning appeal of the Blast ecosystem. When point incentives are no longer omnipotent and the narrative loses its freshness, developers will naturally gravitate towards networks that are more stable, have stronger liquidity, and possess more genuine users.

Looking back at the rise and fall of Blast, its founders attracted a group of excellent developers through early marketing, but failed to build the infrastructure and user stickiness necessary for sustainable ecosystem development. This once again confirms the harsh reality of the crypto world: relying on short-term speculation and traffic tricks may win temporary attention, but only by truly addressing user needs and building a healthy ecosystem can one establish a foothold in fierce competition.

The migration trend from Blast to Base is not just a choice of a single project, but an inevitability of "de-bubbling" in the Layer 2 track.