It has been a long time since we have heard about Layer 1 public chains. The native EVM launched by Injective this year can be regarded as a major highlight in the industry. Now public chains have begun to give themselves some concise and easy-to-understand labels, such as:
Morph: Consumption Chain
Oasys: Game Chain
MegaETH: Live Chain
Injective: Financial Chain
The last one is posted by me. In fact, Injective has always been familiar to the public as a Layer 1 blockchain focusing on financial applications. The project launched its mainnet in 2021, featuring zero MEV (miner extractable value), zero gas fees, efficient transactions, etc., trying to solve the problems of preemption and high costs in traditional blockchain transactions. The launch of Injective EVM not only marks a major upgrade in its technical strategy, but also opens up new possibilities for it in decentralized finance and the broader Web3 ecosystem.
This article will deeply analyze the core value of Injective EVM and its potential impact on the blockchain industry from multiple dimensions such as technical architecture, performance indicators, application scenarios, ecological impact and industry comparison, aiming to provide readers with a comprehensive perspective.
Key points:
1. Technological breakthrough: native unified virtual machine architecture
Injective EVM is deeply embedded in the Layer 1 core architecture, supports seamless collaboration between EVM and WASM, is compatible with the latest Geth and Ethereum standards, and builds a unified and future-oriented development framework through transaction atomicity, zero gas fees and on-chain AI reasoning.
2. Leading performance: surpassing traditional EVM
Injective EVM has demonstrated strong capabilities in performance tests: end-to-end throughput reaches 800 TPS (lightweight) to 320 TPS (heavyweight), with a theoretical maximum throughput of 20,000 TPS, which is 8 times higher than the top EVM networks (such as Base, Optimism), a performance improvement of 400%-1200%, and a confirmation time of only 2-3 seconds, far exceeding Ethereum's minute-level delay.
3. Application scenarios: from DeFi to AI-driven ecosystem
DeFi: Support perpetual futures, RWA tokenization, flash loans and arbitrage
DeFAI: AI agent optimization portfolio, predictive analysis, DAO treasury management
Agent infrastructure: Supports data indexing, cross-chain coordination, swarm intelligence, and AI agent launch platform.
4. Ecological competition: low-key strength
Injective EVM has received support from Google Cloud's verification node, has a community of over 200,000 "ninjas", has had zero failures on the main network for four years, has joined the American Blockchain Association, and has cooperated with Coinbase and others to promote policies, demonstrating its ecological potential and institutional recognition.
1. Technical architecture: Unified EVM, a unified and future-oriented framework
Injective has launched a native EVM execution environment that is fully embedded in its core architecture. This EVM is not plug-in or external bridge, but runs entirely on Injective's own infrastructure, ensuring a high degree of unity and consistency in the execution layer, without sharing states with other chains (i.e. "no shared states"). This means that all transactions and operations are completed under the control of Injective, avoiding the complexity and potential risks in cross-chain interactions.
Developers can therefore use multiple virtual machine instruction sets on a unified platform, supporting multiple programming languages such as Solidity, Rust, and Go. This multi-VM strategy not only attracts developers from the Ethereum ecosystem, but also provides a familiar development environment for builders of ecosystems such as Cosmos and Solana.
The technical characteristics of Injective EVM are reflected in the following aspects:
Latest Geth support and compatibility: Injective EVM uses the latest version of Geth (v1.14.11) to ensure consistency with the latest opcodes and performance optimizations of the Ethereum ecosystem (such as EIP-1559 and EIP-4844). These improvements improve transaction efficiency and data availability, allowing developers to directly use Ethereum toolchains (such as Foundry and Hardhat) for development.
Transaction atomicity: Injective EVM ensures the atomicity of transactions, that is, in a multi-message transaction, if a step fails, the entire transaction will be rolled back to ensure data consistency. This feature is crucial for financial applications (such as flash loans) because it avoids asset losses due to partial failures.
Zero Gas Fee Model: Through its unique economic model, Injective achieves zero Gas Fee. The burning mechanism of $INJ tokens offsets the increase in operating costs as network usage grows. According to official data, Injective burned more than 5.8 million $INJ tokens in 2024, and the transaction volume increased by 300% year-on-year, proving the sustainability of this model.
Zero gas fee not only reduces the cost of use for users, but also provides developers with more room for experimentation, making it possible to deploy complex smart contracts. A developer deployed a smart contract with 5,000 lines of code on Injective, involving multiple layers of nested calls. If it were executed on Ethereum, it would cost about $200 in gas fees, but it is completely free on Injective.
On-chain AI inference support: Injective EVM supports running AI inference models directly on-chain, a feature that benefits from its high computing power and flexible execution environment. On-chain execution of AI inference lays the foundation for the implementation of DeFAI (decentralized finance and AI) and proxy infrastructure, making Injective a leader in technology innovation.
Thanks to Injective's technical architecture and economic model support, the cost of running machine learning models on the chain is 50% lower than traditional cloud services, while also avoiding the privacy risks of off-chain computing.
5. Unified token standards: Injective EVM achieves unified management of token standards through Bank Precompile and ERC20 Module. Bank Precompile allows EVM's ERC-20 tokens to interact directly with Injective's x/bank module, while ERC20 Module maps Injective's native assets to the ERC-20 standard.
This design ensures real-time synchronization of tokens between the EVM and WASM environments, avoids double-bookkeeping problems, and improves the interoperability of the ecosystem.
Finally, modularity, modularity again. Injective's modular design allows EVM developers to use ready-made financial tools directly, and develop a DEX 3 times faster than on Ethereum. Injective's built-in Exchange Precompile module allows EVM developers to directly call Injective's centralized limit order book (CLOB), batch auction (FBA), and shared liquidity environment. This modular support enables developers to quickly build financial applications, such as decentralized exchanges (DEX) or derivatives platforms, without having to develop complex underlying logic from scratch.
2. Leading performance: beyond traditional EVM
Although the price of ETH and the operations of the Ethereum Foundation have been criticized, Ethereum is still one of the most mature ecosystems in the blockchain world. It has the world's largest developer community, the richest tool chain, and a large number of existing applications. According to Electric Capital's 2024 developer report, 74% of multi-chain developers work on the EVM chain.
By introducing EVM, Injective can directly utilize Ethereum's developer base and technical accumulation, attract more developers familiar with EVM to join, reduce their migration costs, and thus accelerate the expansion of the ecosystem.
Since Injective's vision is to become a multi-chain financial infrastructure, supporting EVM is bound to be a key step in its development. The widespread adoption of EVM has made it the "universal language" of the blockchain world. By natively supporting EVM, Injective can seamlessly connect Ethereum and its compatible chains (such as Polygon, BNB Chain, etc.) to achieve cross-chain interaction of assets and data.
Although Ethereum's EVM is powerful, its performance (such as low TPS, high gas fee) has always been a pain point. Injective's native EVM achieves 400% higher performance and 8 times higher theoretical TPS than the top EVM network through underlying architecture optimization. Injective not only inherits the functions of EVM, but also solves its shortcomings, providing a faster and cheaper trading experience. This is crucial for financial applications (especially derivatives trading), because high performance and low cost are the core requirements of such scenarios.
Benchmarks of the Injective EVM in early 2025 provide us with detailed data showing its leading advantages in throughput, latency, and stability.
Below is a detailed analysis of the key performance indicators:
1. End-to-End Chain Performance
Injective processed 1 million lightweight transactions (such as ERC-20 token transfers) with an average throughput of 800 TPS (transactions per second); for heavy transactions (each transaction consumes 50M Gas), the average throughput was 320 TPS when processing 1 million transactions.
This phase also tests the throughput of the account abstraction mechanism and batch user operations, showing the adaptability of Injective under different loads.
2. CPU-Bound Performance
The performance of Injective EVM has been further improved. For lightweight operations (such as token transfers and minting), its throughput reaches 9,000 TPS; for heavy transactions (each containing 10,000 internal calls and consuming 25M Gas), the network can execute 20 such transactions per second.
The theoretical maximum throughput reached 20,000 TPS in extreme tests, which is 8 times higher than top EVM networks such as Base, Optimism, and Starknet, and the overall performance improvement ranged from 400% to 1200%.
3. Stress Testing Results
In high-concurrency scenarios, batch operations (each transaction contains 500 operations, 100 accounts are submitted in parallel, and each account has 10 transactions) achieved 4,500 TPS, and the peak performance reached 12,500 TPS (190M Gas per transaction, processing time 406 milliseconds) and 11,500 TPS (1.9M Gas per transaction, processing time 4.33 milliseconds).
4. Transaction Finality
Injective's block confirmation time is only 2-3 seconds on average, which is much lower than Ethereum's 12-15 seconds per block and minute-level final confirmation time. This low latency is due to its consensus mechanism based on Tendermint, which optimizes the speed of block propagation and provides reliable support for real-time financial transactions.
Comparative analysis with other Layer 1s further highlights Injective’s advantages. The average throughput of the Ethereum mainnet is only 15 TPS, and the gas fee often exceeds $5 per transaction during peak periods. Although Solana can theoretically reach 65,000 TPS, the lack of native EVM support limits its appeal to Ethereum developers.
These benchmark data not only proves Injective's technical strength, but also demonstrates its potential in decentralized finance and broader applications. High TPS and low latency enable it to support complex financial products (such as perpetual contracts, high-frequency trading), while zero gas fees lower the entry barrier for users and developers.
3. Application scenarios: from DeFi to AI-driven ecosystem
The launch of Injective EVM has opened up a wealth of application scenarios for it in DeFi and the broader Web3 ecosystem. Its high performance, zero cost, and AI integration capabilities make it particularly prominent in the financial field, while also supporting the construction of proxy infrastructure beyond finance.
1. DeFi use cases - reshaping the efficiency and intelligence of financial applications
Injective EVM's high throughput (20,000 TPS) and zero gas fee make it an ideal platform for DeFi applications. According to The Block, global DeFi transaction volume reached $2 trillion in 2024, and the high-frequency trading and derivatives markets have an increasing demand for performance.
Injective EVM has achieved breakthroughs in at least the following scenarios:
Perpetual Futures Trading: Injective's decentralized exchange Helix uses the EVM to support perpetual futures trading with up to 50x leverage. As of mid-2024, Helix's monthly trading volume has reached approximately $2 billion, a growth driven by zero gas fees and sub-second execution speeds.
Tokenization of real-world assets: Injective's RWA module supports the tokenization of real-world assets such as real estate and stocks. Injective actively promoted RWA tokenization in early 2025 and has cooperated with several institutions. For example, the January 2025 blog mentioned integration with institutions such as VanEck (managing $100 billion in assets) and Ondo Finance.
Flash Loans and Arbitrage: The transaction atomicity of EVM ensures the reliable execution of flash loans. Flash loans are a type of unsecured loan in DeFi that relies on the atomicity of blockchain transactions, that is, all operations in one transaction are either all successful or all rolled back. Injective's technical architecture (Cosmos SDK + Tendermint) supports high-performance flash loans, and White Whale's flash loan module has been deployed in 2022.
Decentralized Exchange: Injective's Exchange Precompile module enables developers to quickly build DEX. In March 2025, a startup team developed a DEX on Injective and completed the deployment in just two weeks, processing an average of 10,000 transactions per day with a throughput of 4,500 TPS. In contrast, developing similar applications on Ethereum requires about $100,000 in gas fees and takes longer to deploy.
2. DeFAI - AI-driven financial applications
According to a 2025 report by Deloitte, AI-driven financial instruments are expected to manage $1 trillion in assets by 2030, and Injective is at the forefront of this trend. Injective's native EVM supports running AI inference models directly on the chain, which is one of its important features that distinguishes it from other blockchains.
Note: An inference model is a trained AI model that processes input data and generates predictions or decisions.
Injective's AI-Ready VM allows developers to build financial applications that incorporate AI, such as smart trading strategies and risk management tools based on on-chain data. In addition, Injective also supports a wider range of "agentic infrastructure". This refers to autonomous agents running on the chain, which can perform tasks based on preset rules or AI models. For example, an agent may automatically adjust a portfolio, respond to market changes, or optimize transaction execution.
Injective can be applied in the following scenarios (some data are fictitious for ease of understanding):
Portfolio Optimization: AI agents adjust portfolios in real time on Injective. DeFi protocols use Injective EVM’s AI agents to optimize liquidity pools, process 10,000 transactions (9,000 TPS), improve efficiency by 10% when the market drops 15%, and save $100,000 in gas fees.
Predictive analytics: AI agents analyze on-chain data for trend prediction. In March 2025, the data analytics company processed 500 GB of on-chain data (320 TPS) and generated a sentiment analysis model with 80% accuracy, achieving 8% excess returns when BTC fluctuated by 10%.
DAO Treasury Management: Autonomous agents manage DAO funds. Ninja DAO manages $3 million in treasury, AI agent processes 1,500 transactions (4,500 TPS), optimizing 6% annualized rate of return.
High-frequency trading strategies: AI agents can perform high-frequency trading. Quantitative trading firms deployed AI-driven trading strategies on Injective, processing 50,000 trades (12,500 TPS) and achieving 15% monthly returns when market volume increased by 20%.
In addition to finance, Injective's AI-ready virtual machines can also provide technical support for agent infrastructure. AI reasoning models running on the chain can achieve functions such as data indexing, cross-chain coordination, and collective intelligence. For example, smart agent networks (Swarms) can collaborate to build knowledge bases, while launchpads support the rapid deployment of new agents.
Examples of possible application scenarios in the future (some data are fictitious for ease of understanding):
1. Data indexing and analysis: AI agents automatically index blockchain data for query. In February 2026, a data analysis dApp on Injective indexed 500 million transactions at a processing speed of 4,500 TPS, making data available for market research within 10 minutes, significantly improving data access efficiency.
2. Cross-chain coordination: The agent coordinates cross-chain workflows. In the first quarter of 2027, Injective facilitated a $100 million cross-chain swap with Cosmos and Ethereum. The agent managed 15,000 operations with a throughput of 12,500 TPS, reducing human errors by 90%.
3. Swarms: A network of intelligent agents collaborates to create a knowledge base. In September 2026, a research collective on Injective built a decentralized knowledge base with 1,000 agents contributing 50,000 data points and a throughput of 11,500 TPS, which promoted AI-driven scientific discovery.
4. AI Agent Launchpads: A protocol that supports the creation of new agents. In November 2025, Injective’s launchpad deployed 500 AI agents for various dApps, processing 1,000 tasks per day with a throughput of 9,000 TPS, helping to rapidly scale intelligent systems.
4. Ecological competition: low-key strength
In the fierce competition of Layer 1 public chains, the launch of Injective EVM not only demonstrates its technical strength, but also highlights its unique strategy in ecological construction. Compared with high-profile competitors such as Ethereum and Solana, Injective has taken a low-key but pragmatic path, gradually building an ecosystem full of potential through technological innovation, community drive and institutional cooperation.
Let’s first look at the competitive landscape of Layer 1.
Compared with high-profile competitors such as Ethereum and Solana, Injective is more focused on optimization and technological innovation in financial scenarios. Although Ethereum has the most mature ecosystem (more than 3,000 dApps in 2024, according to The Block), its performance bottleneck (15 TPS, high gas fees) limits its performance in high-frequency trading and AI applications. Solana has an advantage in the NFT and gaming fields with its high throughput (65,000 TPS) of SVM, but its developer ecosystem is small (only 15% of multi-chain developers use SVM, according to Electric Capital's 2024 report) and its cross-chain capabilities are weak.
Injective EVM has found a differentiated path by balancing performance and ecology. Its 20,000 TPS throughput and 2-3 seconds confirmation time make it perform well in financial scenarios; zero gas fees and AI reasoning support attract developers to explore new applications. In March 2025, the number of Injective dApps increased from 100 in 2024 to 200, of which 50% were financial applications and 30% involved AI and cross-chain functions, showing the diversity of its ecology.
Compared with other EVM-compatible chains, Injective also has unique advantages. Although Arbitrum and Optimism have higher throughput (Arbitrum averages 4,000 TPS in 2024, Dune Analytics data), they are Layer 2 solutions that rely on the finality of the Ethereum mainnet (minute-level delays) and cannot fully meet real-time financial needs. Although Polygon has a rich ecosystem (1,500 dApps in 2024), its performance (2,000 TPS) is far lower than Injective.
Injective's low-key strategy is also reflected in its marketing. Compared with Solana's high-profile marketing (sponsoring 10 global blockchain summits in 2024, according to CoinDesk data), Injective pays more attention to technology implementation and community building. In March 2025, the Injective mainnet has been running for 4 years without any network-level failures. This stability has earned it the reputation of "low-key and powerful".
In order to accelerate developer adoption, Injective has launched multiple hackathons, attracting more than 500 development teams from around the world to participate. During the event, developers used Injective EVM to develop a variety of applications, including decentralized exchanges, derivatives platforms, and AI-driven trading strategy tools.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Injective’s progress in institutional cooperation has added important weight to its ecological competition.
On March 26, 2025, Injective announced a partnership with Google Cloud, which launched a validation node on Injective and provided new Web3 developer tools. This partnership not only enhances the stability of Injective's infrastructure, but also provides developers with more powerful cloud support. Google Cloud's participation reflects the institution's confidence in Injective's high-performance blockchain.
On the same day, Injective was selected to join the Blockchain Association, working with industry giants such as Coinbase and Circle to promote policies that support cryptocurrencies. This progress enables Injective to gain more support at the regulatory level, especially in the US market. Injective plans to promote RWA tokenization and institutional adoption by cooperating with more institutions (such as traditional banks and asset management companies). Recently, Injective said it is in talks with a US bank to tokenize assets worth $500 million.
In March 2025, Injective has partnered with Sonic, and the multi-virtual machine strategy may be further expanded, committed to creating a concurrent VM ecosystem, in which WASM, inEVM and inSVM are all protected by Injective. The two parties have jointly launched the inSVM (Solana Virtual Machine) ecosystem, which may support other virtual machines such as MoveVM in the future to further expand the developer ecosystem.
In general, Injective EVM has demonstrated a low-key but not to be underestimated strength in the ecological competition. Its technological innovation, community support and institutional cooperation together constitute its competitive advantages, and it is expected to occupy a more important position in the Layer 1 market in the future.
