Canto is a Cosmos based chain built with the EVM (Ethereum Virtual machine). While they have some aspects like a native DEX, money market and CDP asset, they are best compared to general purpose EVM rollups like Arbitrum/Optimism and L1’s like Polygon and BSC. The bridge volume from Ethereum has been impressive over the past month, with ~$120M bridged from Ethereum over the past 30 days.
From the Cosmos side, however, Canto is still relatively behind other Cosmos zones in IBC activity, with ~$15M IBC between other Cosmos zones over the same time period. The IBC volume in of $9M is ~ 7% of volume from Ethereum.
What does this tell us?
- The EVM is still dominant – people like to use the EVM
- Canto users are not (usually) Cosmos users
- Canto users are a big opportunity for the Cosmos ecosystem to onboard
- EVM Cosmos chains can compete with rollups
Cosmos would do well to onboard these users into the larger Cosmos ecosystem over time, but it can be challenging as Canto looks and feels like another EVM chain (for example, can use MetaMask instead of Keplr wallet). EVM chains have also gone through hype cycles in the past where users’ liquidity quickly came and went.
Canto has overtaken (at least for now) Evmos’ role as the EVM chain within the Cosmos ecosystem, but will the users be retained in the broader eco? We’ll be watching Canto IBC volume for trends in this direction over the coming months.