Tezos [XTZ] has seen significant growth in its ecosystem over the last quarter, owing largely to an increase in NFTs and DEX activity on the blockchain, according to Messari.
Because of its energy efficiency and lower transaction fees when compared to other platforms such as Ethereum [ETH], the open-source platform has become a popular choice for NFT creators and collectors.
Expanding participation all round
According to the crypto research firm, the NFT sales which peaked in the fourth quarter of 2022, again stabilized in Q1 2023.
Therein, Tezos was able to build a new user base for the collections under the network. In fact, Rarible, a multichain NFT marketplace added support for Tezos as sales rose above 50,000.
Source: Messari
The report also mentioned that the launch of the Formula One McLaren collectibles also influenced sustainability. And based on Santiment’s data, Tezos has been succoring momentum such that NFT sales volume reached 14 million on 22 April.
Additionally, the launch of Decentralized Exchanges (DEXes) like Dexter, Plenty, and Quipuswap further strengthened Tezos’ position as a blockchain for DeFi activity.
As a result of the jump in active users on the platforms, the Tezos TVL reached an All-Time High (ATH).
![Tezos [XTZ] Total Value Locked](https://statics.ambcrypto.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-24-at-10.28.25.png)
Source: Messari
The TVL growth signifies that users have strong confidence in activities on the Tezos protocol. Messari, pointing out the impact of the XTZ price, and other contributors, noted:
“The TVL denominated in USD rose 76% QoQ from $52 million to $92 million, while the TVL denominated in XTZ increased 24% QoQ from 68 million to 84 million, setting another all-time high”
To delegate, stake, and bring in more users
However, there were varying outcomes for Tezos on other branches of its use cases and applications. For one, the smart contracts call from the NFT and gaming sectors dropped.
This means that transactions broadcasted on the network were reduced as developer execution on the network diminished.
Despite the decline, the blockchain added its highest number of validators on a Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) basis. Validators, in this instance, are responsible for maintaining the security of the blockchain through staking.
![Total supply of Tezos [XTZ] staked](https://statics.ambcrypto.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-24-at-11.03.36.png)
Source: Messari
As a result of the validator increase, the total supply of staked XTZ rose to 72%.
83% of this staked supply came from delegators while validators accounted for 27%. This infers that major stakeholders had committed to the project for the long term.
Lately, Tezos announced a crucial development to its network which would allow optimistic and Zero-Knowledge (ZK) rollups integration.
The project also has plans to support the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) in the near future. With all of these, Tezos could experience a large influx of user adoption and might not lean on the DeFi and NFT strides alone anymore.
