Behind the surge in Injective data, is it a flash in the pan or a return of the king?

In the past month, the well-established public chain Injective has made a comeback to the public eye, ranking second in net capital inflow. According to data from Artemis, Injective has seen a net inflow of approximately $142 million in the last 30 days, only trailing behind Ethereum.

PANews observed that other data aspects of Injective also show that this phenomenon of net capital inflow is not an isolated case. There have been significant increases in on-chain fees, active users, and token trading volume. After a long period of silence, will this once-rising public chain star Injective welcome another ecological explosion? Or is it just a flash in the pan?

Monthly inflow of $142 million, is high yield “honey” or “signal bomb”?

As of June 4, data shows that Injective has achieved a net inflow of $142 million in the past month. Although the amount is not particularly high, it ranks second among all public chains in recent data. A close examination of the data reveals that the obvious reason for this net inflow is that on one hand, Injective has indeed welcomed a wave of rapid large-scale capital inflow, while on the other hand, the net outflow of funds is very minimal, only $11 million. Therefore, if we delve into the reasons, the high ranking of Injective’s net capital inflow is not due to its overall capital flow being exceptionally active (i.e., there are large-scale inflows and outflows simultaneously). In fact, its pure capital inflow ranks only around tenth when compared horizontally with other public chains. The reason it performs outstandingly in the ‘net inflow’ indicator lies in the fact that the capital outflow during the same period is negligible.

However, this kind of on-chain fund movement is rare for the Injective network. Out of the 142 million in fund inflow, 140 million was completed through the Peggy cross-chain bridge, accounting for 98.5% of the share. Market analysis firm Keyrock pointed out in its report “Key Insights, Bond Appetit” published on May 26 that this large-scale fund inflow is mainly attributed to the launch of the institutional-grade yield platform Upshift on Injective. It is understood that the APY of Upshift’s treasury on Injective reaches 30%, and this high yield could indeed be an important reason for attracting funds to transfer assets to Injective.

However, PANews found through investigation that the vault cap established by Upshift on Injective is $5 million, which cannot fully accommodate the inflow of these funds. Those funds that failed to participate in this vault investment may likely flow out again in the short term.

From the failure of derivatives to hopes for RWA, can Injective open a new chapter?

In addition to the influx of funds, Injective has indeed welcomed some significant changes to its ecosystem recently. On April 22, the Lyora mainnet officially launched, marking an important milestone in Injective’s development history. Following this mainnet upgrade, technologies such as dynamic fee structures and smart mempool have been introduced. According to official materials, after the upgrade, Injective is described as “faster” and claims to have lower latency and higher throughput.

In addition, Injective has also launched a dedicated oracle framework for RWA called iAssets, and Upshift’s treasury is precisely an RWA DeFi treasury. On May 29, Injective officially announced the launch of an on-chain foreign exchange market for euros and pounds, utilizing the iAsset framework. From this perspective, Injective’s new narrative seems to be closely linked with RWA.

As a veteran public chain, Injective’s original core narrative was a decentralized derivatives exchange. The initial Injective also evolved from a decentralized derivatives exchange into a public chain, and this trajectory seems to be in line with the currently popular Hyperliquid.

However, the current derivatives trading on Injective seems to have fallen short of expectations. Data from June 4 shows that the highest trading volume for BTC contract trading pairs on Injective within 24 hours was approximately $39.75 million, while the total derivatives trading volume across the chain was about $90 million. In comparison, Hyperliquid’s data for the same day was approximately $7 billion, a difference of about 77 times.

Perhaps due to difficulties in making breakthroughs in the field of crypto derivatives, Injective has chosen to shift towards a direction that combines RWA. From the perspective of the ecosystem’s own development comparison, this transformation seems to have had some effect. On May 22, Injective’s derivatives trading reached a peak of $1.97 billion, significantly higher than at other times, and has recently shown an overall upward trend.

In addition, in terms of daily active users, the number of addresses has surged from a low of 6,300 in February to 47,900 recently, an increase of about 7.6 times. Although this figure ranks only 12th among all public chains, considering the rapid growth in a short period and surpassing public chains like Avalanche and Berachain, it can be regarded as a significant breakthrough.

However, even with a significant increase in daily active users, Injective’s TVL has not shown any noticeable change, having declined steadily since March 2024, with the current TVL being only 26.33 million USD. At least from the current perspective, the DeFi projects on Injective still do not have a high attraction for funds.

The token has shown a remarkable short-term rebound, yet it still has a 4-fold gap from its historical high.

In terms of the economy, its governance token INJ currently has a market value of approximately $1.26 billion, ranking 82nd. Compared to its highest market value of $5.3 billion, it has decreased by 76%. However, from the lowest point in April of $6.34, it rebounded to a maximum of $15.48, achieving an increase of 144%. This data is considered quite impressive among established public chains. However, how long this sustainability will last remains unknown.

Of course, Injective’s recent actions are not limited to the aforementioned content. For example, it has recently attracted several well-known institutions such as Republic, Google Cloud, and Deutsche Telekom MMS to join the validators’ collaboration, as well as launched some AI-related products and developments. Overall, Injective has been actively seizing new narratives like AI and RWA for transformation over the past year. According to data up to June, it has indeed experienced some growth in recent months. However, in terms of magnitude, there is still a significant gap compared to the current mainstream public chains.

However, these pursuers are not just Injective. Several star public chains from the previous round are now facing similar predicaments. Many have returned to the public eye through name changes, brand upgrades, and other methods. The question is whether this new wine in an old bottle model can truly offer the market a new taste, or if it will only remain a fresh package.

At present, the ecological transformation and revival path of Injective is still in its infancy. The capital inflow triggered by Upshift seems more like an important market sentiment test and a demonstration of ecological potential, rather than a fundamental reshaping of the landscape. Whether its strategic tilt towards RWA can truly create a differentiated competitive advantage and translate into sustained ecological prosperity and value capture still needs to overcome many challenges and undergo long-term market testing.

Whether the short-term data rebound is a flash in the pan or a positive signal in a long recovery journey, only time will provide the final answer. For Injective, the real test has just begun.

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