Over the last 30 days, Arc, the institutional, stablecoin-native Layer-1 blockchain launched by USDC-issuer Circle, accomplished precisely one of those silent milestones, quietly pulling ahead of Near Protocol.
I have spent enough time staring at DEX leaderboards to know that the interesting stories rarely sit at the top. Solana at number one surprises no one. The real action is in the middle of the table, where a newcomer can slip past an established name without a single press release. That is exactly what CoinMarketCap’s All Chains Leaderboard shows on the 30-day view, where Arc now sits at number eight, one place above Near.
The Gap Is Small, but the Direction Is Not
On unique traders over the last 30 days, Arc has logged 347.64K against Near’s 321.57K. That is a lead of roughly 26,000 traders, or about 8 percent. Nobody should call that a landslide, and I would not read it as a permanent changing of the guard. But leaderboards like this are ranked by participation, and participation is the hardest thing in crypto to fake at scale. Arc is also clear of Sui at 164.67K and Arbitrum at 153.53K, and it sits at about 71 percent of Ethereum’s 490.06K traders. For a chain most readers have barely heard of, that is a serious showing.
A 9,639% Jump Tells You How Early This Is
The number that stopped me is the growth figure beside Arc’s entry. The DEX Liq column lists $332M for Arc, up 9,639.35 percent. Growth of that size almost always means a very small base, which tells me Arc was close to dormant on this metric until recently. Near’s own figure is up 77.38 percent, which would be impressive on any other day. Next to Arc it looks like a rounding error. The honest reading is that Arc is starting from scratch and the percentage mostly measures how little was there before.
Near’s Dollar Figure Still Dwarfs Arc’s
Here is where I would pump the brakes on anyone preparing a victory lap for Arc. Near’s entry in the same column reads $19.65B, roughly 59 times Arc’s $332M. Near has done that with just two DEXs listed. Arc has 100. So Near is concentrating enormous value through a tiny number of venues, while Arc is spreading a much smaller amount across a wide field of them.
Those are two different pictures of what a healthy chain looks like. Near’s looks like depth, a few venues carrying heavy flow. Arc’s looks like breadth, plenty of places to trade and plenty of people trying them. Breadth is a good sign for ecosystem building, but it does not pay the bills if the dollars do not follow. Arc beat Near on the number of traders, not on the amount of money moving through the chain.
The Rest of the Table Is Just as Restless
Arc is not the only mover. Robinhood’s chain holds third place with $1.46B, up 57.79 percent, and 3.71M traders, which says plenty about what happens when a mainstream retail brand gets its own rails. Anubis at number six posted a 26.08 percent gain on 628.61K traders, and it manages that with only 10 DEXs. Base, meanwhile, sits fifth with $22.88B, up 7.57 percent, and 768.2K traders across 891 DEXs.
Solana remains in a league of its own, at $218.21B, up 0.37 percent, with 16.76M traders and 68 DEXs. Even a flat month for Solana is larger than most of the board combined. BNB Smart Chain is a distant second in traders at 3.9M, with $12.62B, up 4.19 percent, and a staggering 4.06K DEXs. The 30-day chart tells the same story visually, with the purple band at the top holding its share while smaller colored layers shuffle underneath.
What I Would Watch Next
The first question is whether Arc can hold these traders once the novelty fades. A wide, sudden spike in unique wallets is exactly what incentive campaigns and airdrop hunting produce, and those crowds leave as fast as they arrive. The second is whether Arc’s dollar figure begins to climb in a way that matches its trader count, because the current gap suggests small average trade sizes. The third is whether Near can reclaim the number eight spot, which, given a lead of only 8 percent, could happen within weeks without much effort.
For now, I would treat Arc as the chain to watch rather than the chain to crown. It has earned the ranking on participation, and the 100 DEXs suggest builders are showing up. But with one 30-day snapshot, I would wait for another few weeks of data before calling this a trend instead of a spike.
I kept the Arc background out because I couldn’t confirm details about the chain from the screenshot alone. If you tell me what Arc is and who is behind it, I can add a short context paragraph.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on X @nulltxnews
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