In-depth analysis of the TVL surge in Manta Pacific: Development roadmap and ecosystem fully covered

Author: Biteye Core Contributor Lucky, Editor: Biteye Core Contributor Crush

Introduction to Manta Pacific

The popular Blast has recently seen its futures price on Aevo increase along with TVL, soaring from a low of $3.5 to $15.5 within a week, before dropping back to $7. This indicates that the L2 model focusing on native revenue is gaining recognition in the market.

Can Manta, which also utilizes New Paradigm for native revenue, surpass Blast in the near future? Let's first take a look at the advantages of Manta and where early adopters of Manta may have more profit opportunities compared to Blast.

Manta Network is a modular blockchain for zero-knowledge ZK applications, created by an experienced founding team from prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and MIT.

Manta Network has received investments from top Web3 funds, including Binance Labs and Polychain Capital.

Manta Pacific, on the other hand, is an Ethereum Layer2 designed specifically for ZK applications, currently based on OP Stack, fully compatible with the EVM environment and Solidity development language;

In the future, Manta Pacific will implement zkEVM based on Polygon CDK; meanwhile, it will utilize Manta's universal circuits to provide ZK-as-a-Service and leverage Celestia's modular data availability to offer low gas fees.

It can be said that Manta Pacific provides a perfect environment for supporting ZK applications. Solidity developers do not need cryptography knowledge or to learn a new language to enable ZK functionality through SDK or API calls.

(Note: Manta's universal circuits are zero-knowledge proof ZK circuit libraries designed for general scenarios, providing ZK-as-a-Service for Solidity developers. With just a few lines of code, developers can enable ZK features in existing applications, including compliant DeFi payments, Web3 social identity verification, full-chain game shuffling, etc. Through the universal circuits on Manta Pacific, developers can easily deploy EVM-native ZK applications.)

Manta Pacific launched its mainnet Alpha version on September 12, 2023, currently ranking as the third largest OP Stack L2, following Optimism and Base. Once fully transitioning to zkEVM, Manta Pacific may become the largest zkEVM-based L2 network on Polygon.

From the launch of Manta Pacific, its future development will be divided into four different stages:

(1) Manta Pacific Alpha (Ethereum L2)

In the current version, Manta Pacific is based on Ethereum's Optimistic Rollup, using Ethereum's data availability DA.

It utilizes Manta Network's universal circuits to allow developers to quickly build and deploy ZK-related applications using Solidity and the universal circuits SDK.

Therefore, all existing Ethereum smart contracts can seamlessly adapt to Manta Pacific, while opening up new application scenarios based on ZK functionality, such as verifiable DID/KYC, fully on-chain ZK games, and collaboration between DeFi and decentralized identities.

(2) Manta Pacific Alpha II (+Celestia DA)

In this stage, Manta Pacific will implement data expansion through integrating Celestia's modular data availability DA, significantly reducing gas fees for user interactions within the Manta Pacific ecosystem.

The cost of Celestia is sublinearly related to Ethereum's gas prices, much cheaper than Ethereum's current costs.

(3) Manta Pacific Beta (+Transition to zkEVM)

In this stage, Manta Pacific plans to fully transition to zkEVM and utilize Polygon's ZK provers.

The final stage of the network architecture will involve using Manta's universal circuits for built-in ZK features to support a wide range of ZK applications, combined with Validium services, Celestia DA, zkEVM, and Polygon CDK for scalability.

(4) Manta Pacific Production-Grade Mainnet I (+Universal Circuits 2.0)

In the final stage, Manta Pacific will officially launch its mainnet. For the Manta Pacific mainnet, Manta Pacific will further upgrade universal circuits to achieve lower gas costs, while unlocking new application scenarios with novel ZK technology.

Looking at the roadmap of Manta Pacific, it will be the first zkEVM L2 to transition from Optimistic Rollup to Validium, using Polygon CDK to achieve this transition. By significantly reducing gas fees through Celestia DA, and enhancing security through Ethereum consensus and on-chain cryptographic proofs, Manta Pacific is a forward-looking L2 network.

New Paradigm Activities

Recently, Manta chain launched the liquidity incentive activity New Paradigm within its ecosystem. Similar to the previous Blast liquidity staking, users can pledge their funds to receive future token airdrop rewards.

Compared to Blast, the advantage of New Paradigm lies in its diverse ecosystem projects and shorter breakeven period. Users can receive token airdrops as early as January 2024, while Blast's airdrop may not be available until May, making the capital utilization rate in New Paradigm much higher than Blast.

(1) The expected rewards of the activity include:

New Paradigm has five sources of income, including fixed income, NFT incentives, and compounded income from the unique DeFi composability within the L2 ecosystem.

1. After ETH and USDC cross-chain to the Manta ecosystem, similar to Blast, even if the assets are held idle, they will earn around 5% interest;

2. Participating in the activity by pledging assets can earn future MANTA token airdrops;

3. Engaging in interactions with projects within the Manta ecosystem to receive potential airdrop opportunities from the projects themselves;

4. After pledging ETH and USDC, using the Stone and wUSDM earned to participate in projects within the Manta ecosystem, such as lending projects, to receive the returns offered by the projects themselves;

5. Earning returns through Restaking stETH (optional, subject to the availability of Eigenlayer Restaking Cap) for stETH;

(Note: ETH will be converted to Stone upon deposit, and USDC will be converted to wUSDM. If there is no GAS for subsequent interactions, a third-party bridge can be used, such as MiniBridge for cross-chain transfer to the Manta network, which will save on GAS fees.

To participate in the activity, funds must be deposited through the activity page to receive blind box fragments. However, subsequent GAS required for interactions within the Manta ecosystem can be done through a third-party bridge to cross-chain: https://minibridge.chaineye.tools/)

(2) The specific steps are as follows:

1) Cross-chain ETH or USDC to Manta Pacific for deposit, earn interest and box fragments. The deposit period is open until January 2024;

2) Users will receive STONE and wUSDM on Manta Pacific within 24 hours after deposit. The earliest MANTA token rewards can be claimed through NFT in January 2024;

3) After 69 days of MANTA token reward distribution, users can redeem ETH and USDC using STONE and wUSDM;

For detailed strategies, refer to Biteye's "Manta New Paradigm Participation Best Strategy Tutorial" to maximize returns.

StakeStone and Mountain Protocol

In New Paradigm, the earnings from pledged ETH are sourced from the StakeStone protocol, while the earnings from pledged USDC are sourced from the Mountain Protocol. Let's introduce these two key protocols within the Manta ecosystem:

(1) StakeStone

StakeStone is a full-chain LST (Liquid Stake Token) protocol dedicated to building a decentralized all-in-one staking protocol, a cross-chain market for LST liquidity, providing stakers with easy staking services, backed by Hashkey Capital and audited by Secure3Audit.

Users can deposit ETH to receive STONE. For example, if User A deposits 100 ETH to exchange for a certain amount of STONE, and after a year, the value of 1 STONE becomes 1.04 ETH, User A can withdraw 104 ETH with 100 STONE.

When users deposit ETH into StakeStone, they will immediately receive STONE. Simultaneously, the received ETH enters the vault contract and awaits deployment. After deployment, the ETH in the vault contract will be sent to Lido to exchange for stETH, which will then be stored in StakeStone's strategy vault.

In the future, stETH may be deposited into Eigenlayer for re-staking to earn more profits for STONE holders.

Currently, the total amount of ETH deposited in StakeStone is steadily increasing, with a total of 225,498 ETH deposited, equivalent to $515M.

(2) Mountain Protocol

Mountain Protocol is an institutional-grade compliant regulatory revenue stablecoin protocol, with investment from Coinbase Ventures and audits by various renowned audit institutions like OpenZeppelin.

The stablecoin USDM it issues is backed by short-term US government bonds, which are among the safest assets in the world.

The primary reserves behind USDC and USDT are also short-term US government bonds. According to the risk rating report from the stablecoin rating agency Bluechip, USDM has the same risk rating as DAI. Therefore, Mountain possesses both security and compliance as essential features.

During New Paradigm, after users deposit USDC, they will automatically receive wUSDM Wrapped USDM on Manta Pacific, similar to Lido's wstETH.

During the New Paradigm activity, users can consider using wUSDM in other protocols for yield farming. wUSDM, like any other ERC20 token, can interact with various smart contracts, decentralized applications, and wallets on L2.

Currently, the issuance of USDM has reached $136M according to DefiLlama's data, significantly increasing after partnering with Manta.

Ecosystem Data and Overview of Ecosystem Projects

According to L2 Beat data, Manta's TVL has reached $559M, surpassing Linea, Starknet, and other popular L2 chains, currently ranking sixth.

From on-chain data, the number of TX in the Manta ecosystem has reached nearly 7 million, with a total of 446,454 wallet addresses, showing significant growth in on-chain daily activities over the past three months.

Currently, there are over 200 ecosystem projects on Manta Pacific, with most projects yet to issue tokens. It is foreseeable that the New Paradigm activity has brought in a large number of new users to Manta, while also depositing a significant amount of funds on-chain. These funds will continue to circulate within the ecosystem, interacting with Manta's projects, gradually cultivating loyal users on the chain.

Below are introductions to some key ecosystem projects on Manta:

1. QuickSwap: QuickSwap is the largest DEX in the Manta ecosystem in terms of trading volume and one of the largest and most well-known DEXs in the Polygon ecosystem.

2. iZUMi Finance: iZUMi is a multi-chain DeFi protocol that provides a Liquidity as a Service (LaaS), innovatively proposing a discrete liquidity automatic market-making model, with over $50M in funding from investors including IOSG Ventures, Distributed Capital, Hashkey Capital, and BIXIN Ventures.

3. LayerBank: LayerBank is the largest lending protocol in the Manta ecosystem, audited by Peckshield, with a TVL of $265M. It is deployed on Linea, Scroll, but the majority of TVL is currently in Manta.

4. Symbiosis: Symbiosis is a cross-chain DEX and liquidity protocol, funded by DWF Labs, Shima Capital, Binance Labs, Dragonfly, Amber Group, among others, with $2M in funding.

5. PacificSwap: PacificSwap is a DEX protocol based on the ve(3,3) model, developed on the Pancake Swap model, utilizing the innovative CLAMM algorithm.

6. AsMatch: AsMatch is an online dating application based on zero-knowledge proof ZK, where users can swipe left or right to match or unmatch with others, and can input zkSBT's ZK Proof Key into the app to verify on-chain behaviors and identities, falling under the Social category in Manta.

7. Orbiter Finance: Orbiter Finance is a decentralized Rollup bridge for transferring Ethereum native assets, providing infrastructure for Layer 2, one of the largest cross-chain bridges, with $3.2M in funding from Starkware, Amber group, among others.

8. Minibridge: Minibridge is a cross-chain bridge optimized for small-scale transfers, with advantages of low fees and fast transactions. It has been voted as the favorite bridge by users on dappsheriff, offering a 50% fee discount during the New Paradigm activity. MiniBridge is the award-winning team at the Ethereum Shanghai 2023.

Conclusion

With the approaching issuance in 2024, the airdrop brought by the MANTA token will undoubtedly further enhance the L2 discussion in the first quarter of 2024. Additionally, with the integration of Manta and Celestia in the next stage, the modular blockchain and ZK EVM dual features can provide Manta with unique advantages.

Therefore, in this stage, where most projects in the ecosystem have not yet issued tokens, coupled with the strong background of Binance investment, the degree of on-chain activity is much lower than chains like Zksync. Participating more in interactions on this chain, increasing asset returns, and speculating on future airdrops from ecosystem projects can be considered a very cost-effective operation.

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