How did "Penguin Chain" Abstract achieve over 1.3 million users and more than 50 million in volume in just 3 months?

Author: Stacy Muur

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

In the blockchain field dominated by infrastructure-first approaches, Abstract made a strong debut on January 27, 2025, with a bold adjustment to its core strategy: to focus first on end users rather than developer test networks, aiming to promote the real large-scale implementation of applications.

Overview

• Launch time: January 27, 2025
• Development History: Abstract is the first Layer 2 scaling solution designed for consumers in the Ethereum ecosystem, developed by the Igloo team, which created the well-known NFT series "Pudgy Penguins."
• Core Value Proposition: Designed for mass adoption, Abstract eliminates key barriers such as wallets, mnemonic phrases, and gas fees.
• Application areas: gaming, social, NFTs, and prediction markets
• Technical Architecture: Built on zkSync ZK Stack

Data as of April 22, 2025:

• 1.31 million+ independent wallets
• Total trading volume exceeds 51.3 million transactions
• The contract creation volume reached 2.26 million.
• Total Guaranteed Value ( TVS ): 46.66 million USD
• DeFi TVL: $16.86 million
• Daily trading volume: 500,000 to 700,000 transactions
• Daily active wallets: 50,000 to 100,000

The UX Revolution: A True Consumer Chain Practice

Unlike most L2s that first launch development tools and wait for ecosystem development, Abstract restructured the user lifecycle experience:

1. Registration phase: Built-in smart contract wallet (AGW), no need to rely on external tools like MetaMask.
2. Discovery mechanism: Through the embedded consumption portal to aggregate applications, integrate live viewing and XP task systems, and realize closed-loop interaction within the station
3. Retention System: A combination of streaming media content + dynamic tasks + incentive mechanisms

"Pudgy Effect": Large-scale issuance driven by IP

The onboarding process of Abstract is not designed around incentive measures or airdrops, but is built around the distribution of native IP and channels for attracting real-world consumers.

Pudgy's consumer IP and product distribution system is Abstract's core strategy for achieving user-driven growth before launching any tokens.

• Sequencer release: The first node accurately connects with Pudgy Penguins' marketing cycle, and reaches 700,000+ transactions on the first day
• On-chain reward system: Binding Pudgy offline experience rights, NFT holders can enjoy bonus rewards
• Native Application Matrix: Core DApps such as Pudgy World and Pudgy Party launched simultaneously.
• Virtual-Real Interaction Innovation: Physical toys come with QR codes that lead directly to the on-chain world, achieving the conversion from consumer products to on-chain users.
• Channel leverage effect: The derivative Pudgy IP has already achieved over 1 million toy sales, 10 million USD in revenue, and a pool of 1.7 million Instagram followers.
• Customer Acquisition Cost Optimization: Leveraging IP assets to achieve low-cost cold starts and quickly generate network effects.

App usage: Where are users spending their time?

Unlike most emerging blockchains, which tend to focus on a single domain such as cross-chain bridging, token swapping, or experimental decentralized applications, the Abstract blockchain shows a broad and multi-layered application ecosystem, with application scenarios covering multiple dimensions such as digital wallets, application frameworks, games and entertainment, transaction services, and social networks.

Top 7 Apps! [With more than 1.3 million users and more than 50 million transactions, how did the "Penguin Chain" Abstract achieve it in 3 months?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-0216c3e5e96b62dffa8f9c5b4cadafea)

The wallet and core interface have driven over 27 million transactions and 700,000 users solely based on infrastructure. Beyond the infrastructure, applications such as gacha games, Myriad, and Reservoir continue to demonstrate user revisitation behavior.

On-chain Activities: Insights Behind the Data

• Active wallets: Reached a peak of over 150,000 daily in February, then gradually stabilized, maintaining in the range of 50,000 to 100,000.
• Factors driving participation: The surge in activity is closely related to application releases, community events, and on-chain incentive measures.
• Retention signal: A brief decline in March, followed by a rebound - this indicates that users have genuine stickiness, rather than utilitarian behavior.

! [With more than 1.3 million users and more than 50 million transactions, how did the "Penguin Chain" Abstract achieve it in 3 months?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-24ed36e24714c44dbeb0faa5204c84f0)

Total Value Locked (TVL) Trend Analysis

Currently, the Abstract protocol has locked in an amount of 46.66 million USD. After experiencing rapid growth since its launch, the Total Value Staked (TVS) has consistently maintained above 45 million USD, with a significant peak in early February. Despite a slight decrease in early April (around 3%), the capital scale quickly rebounded, indicating that the protocol has a stable capital retention capability and low short-term volatility risk.

! [With more than 1.3 million users and more than 50 million transactions, how did the "Penguin Chain" Abstract achieve it in 3 months?] ](https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-1403f0335606783fa848020f3fa6d21f)

Transaction Trend Analysis

• Initial growth period: Transaction volume gradually climbed after launch → Reached a peak of over one million average daily trading volume in February
• Stable operation period: From March to April, the average daily trading volume remains between 500,000 and 700,000.
• Cumulative Processing Volume: The platform's total trading volume has surpassed 40 million and is showing a continuous growth trend.

infrastructure technology stack

Abstract is a vertically integrated blockchain designed for consumer-grade user experience. Its infrastructure architecture combines zero-knowledge proof (ZK) scalability technology with embedded user-side tools.

Product Stack Overview:

Four-layer architecture:

1.Abstract ZK-rollup

2.Abstract Global Wallet

3. Panoramic Governance (PG)

4. Consumer Portal

Deconstruct and analyze each level within the framework of architectural design and performance.

AGW: No MetaMask required, no mnemonic phrases, no pop-ups.

AGW will be released to all Abstract users by default as a basic feature. The product replaces traditional browser plug-ins, external accounts (EOAs), and complex login interactions through a smart contract wallet layer native to the blockchain.

Application scale:

A total of over 15.6 million transactions processed

The total number of registered users has reached 315,000, with 254,000 active users in the last 30 days.

Core functional features:

• Quick registration with email/social account/access key (using Privy)
• Gas-free transactions (via paymasters)
• Allow operations to be performed silently in the background after the session key is authorized
• Supports bulk transaction packaging and submission, eliminating multi-step interaction processes.
• The social account recovery mechanism based on the Guardian module completely avoids the risk of losing traditional mnemonic phrases.

Consumer Portal

The consumer portal is the default user interface for all Abstract wallets. It integrates application discovery, asset exchange, streaming services, XP task system, and wallet management functions. It is the main entry point for users to use and retain applications.

The Abstract App alone has processed over 11.7 million transactions from 588,000 users, with a transaction volume of 6.4 million in the last 30 days and an active user count of 447,000.

Portal features:

• Discover applications through a curated app market
• The live broadcast center is directly embedded in the application.
• Experience points and task system enhance application activity
• Native support for token swaps and NFT minting
• One-stop integration of AGW wallet management, identity authentication, and activity records

Panoramic Governance (PG)

PG is a value redistribution mechanism based on actual usage, and the sequencer fee + token release flow direction:

• Active Users
• High Traffic Applications
• Participants in governance voting through staking and usage

Unlike most chains that adopt "passive governance" (where weight is determined solely by the amount of tokens held), PG requires participants to actively contribute to network activities in order to unlock rewards.

Developers can offer "voting bribes" to compete for token release amounts based on voting weight (similar to the Aerodrome model), but the system scale is driven by activity rather than solely relying on the amount of tokens held.

Incentive Positive Cycle:

• Users benefit from usage
• Application: Benefit from increased participation
• Governance: Benefiting from promoting ecological activity

This is a complete innovation of the traditional "locking + idle" token model.

uses live streaming as a growth engine

Most blockchain projects view live streaming and creator content as an off-protocol marketing layer. Abstract, on the other hand, directly embeds it into the on-chain protocol through consumer entry, making live streaming a native component of user registration, ecosystem discovery, and user growth.

The uniqueness of the Abstract platform:

• The platform natively integrates live streaming features similar to Twitch, rather than through external access.
• The income of streamers uses an on-chain payment mechanism, and the revenue sharing is primarily based on the following indicators:
• Number of viewers
• Effect on the promotion of applications in the Abstract ecosystem
• User subsequent behavior (recorded by the AGW tracking system)

The platform will actively recommend popular video clips and live content, thereby building a complete traffic loop between creators, application developers, and users.

Flywheel effect in operation

Hosts showcase new applications on the Abstract platform.

Users log in through AGW (Abstract Gateway) to immediately experience these applications;

The application usage has surged, attracting more creators to join and driving funding for collaborative projects between developers and streamers.

Abstract promotes high-quality content snippets, injecting more potential user attention traffic into the platform.

This closed loop internalizes the entire content → usage → growth chain within the platform, rather than dispersing it across multiple platforms.

Conclusion: The current positioning of Abstract

Abstract has demonstrated what user-centric blockchain infrastructure looks like in practical applications:

• Wallet functionality is built-in: not an external plugin, but deeply integrated.
• Discover and interact natively: features are native to the platform, rather than existing in a fragmented manner.
• Embedded ecology of content: Content grows autonomously on the platform, without relying on external channels like Twitter.
• Behavior Incentive-Oriented: Reward users for their behavioral contributions rather than just for being token holders.