Injective on-chain data surge: a one-time frenzy or a long-term revival?

Recently, the Injective public chain has regained market attention, ranking second in net capital inflow among all public chains. Data shows that Injective's net inflow in the past 30 days was approximately $142 million, second only to Ethereum.

In addition to capital inflows, indicators such as on-chain fees, active users, and token trading volume for Injective have also seen significant increases. Will this once high-profile public chain project usher in a new wave of ecological prosperity, or is it merely a temporary hot spot effect?

High yields attract capital inflows, but sustainability is questionable.

As of June 4, Injective has achieved a net inflow of $142 million over the past month. This is mainly due to a rapid influx of large funds, while outflows are very minimal, only $11 million. It is worth noting that Injective's pure inflow volume ranks only about tenth in horizontal comparison among public chains, and its high net inflow ranking is primarily due to the extremely low outflows.

Of this fund inflow, 98.5% (about $140 million) was completed through the peggy cross-chain bridge. Some analysts believe that this massive fund inflow is mainly attributed to the launch of the yield platform Upshift on Injective, with an annualized yield rate of up to 30%.

However, Upshift has a vault cap of $5 million on Injective, which cannot fully absorb this influx of funds. Therefore, the funds that failed to participate in the vault investment may flow out again in the short term.

From Derivatives to RWA: Injective's Strategic Transformation

Injective has also made significant progress in ecosystem development recently. On April 22, its Lyora mainnet upgrade went live, introducing dynamic fee structures and smart memory pool optimizations, claiming to provide lower latency and higher throughput.

In addition, Injective has launched the oracle framework iAssets for RWA (real-world assets). On May 29, on-chain foreign exchange markets for euros and pounds were launched based on this framework. These actions indicate that Injective is shifting its focus towards the RWA sector.

As a public chain originating from a decentralized derivatives exchange, Injective seems to have fallen short of its expected goals in derivatives trading. Data from June 4 shows that the daily trading volume of Injective's on-chain derivatives is approximately $90 million, which is significantly lower compared to similar projects. This may be one of the reasons prompting Injective to shift towards the RWA direction.

This transformation strategy has shown initial results. On May 22, the trading volume of Injective derivatives reached a peak of $1.97 billion, and recently it has shown an overall upward trend. The number of daily active users has increased from 6,300 in February to 47,900 recently, an increase of about 7.6 times.

However, despite the increase in user activity, the Total Value Locked (TVL) of Injective has not seen significant growth and has been declining since March 2024, currently standing at only $26.33 million. This indicates that DeFi projects on Injective still lack sufficient appeal to attract funds.

The token performance is impressive in the short term, but still far below historical highs.

The governance token INJ of Injective currently has a market value of approximately $1.26 billion, down 76% from its historical high of $5.3 billion. However, it has rebounded from a low of $6.34 in April to a high of $15.48, achieving a growth of 144%, which is quite prominent among established public chains.

In addition, Injective has recently attracted several well-known institutions to join the ranks of validators and has launched some AI-related products. Overall, Injective is actively seizing emerging trends such as AI and RWA for transformation and has indeed achieved certain growth in recent months. However, in terms of magnitude, there is still a significant gap compared to mainstream public chains.

The ecological transformation and revival path of Injective is still in its early stages. The influx of funds triggered by Upshift feels more like a test of market sentiment and a demonstration of ecological potential, rather than a fundamental shift in the landscape. Whether its strategic transition towards RWA can genuinely create differentiated competitive advantages and translate into sustained ecological prosperity and value capture still needs to overcome numerous challenges and undergo long-term market scrutiny.

The short-term data rebound is either a fleeting phenomenon or a positive signal in a long recovery journey; time will provide the answer. For Injective, the real test is just beginning.