As an ordinary retail investor, I am long accustomed to the daily routine of feeling itchy when the market rises and tossing and turning when it falls. My funds are not large, and my patience is limited, but the biggest frustration has never been a chain's performance parameters. What truly gives headaches are those invisible, intangible hidden costs.

Before buying coins, you need to reserve fuel; when transferring stablecoins, you must beware of fee fluctuations; cross-chain bridges also pose security risks; and finally, withdrawing funds involves another round of friction. Every step reminds you that the existing infrastructure is simply not designed for everyday capital flow.

It wasn't until I encountered Plasma that I realized there is a project with a different approach. It didn't bother to boast about how advanced its technology is; instead, from day one, it focused on stablecoin payments—zero-fee USDT transfers, faster transaction confirmations, and participation in the ecosystem without holding native tokens. It sounds straightforward, but actually achieving this is incredibly difficult because it involves on-chain and off-chain coordination, technical stability, economic model consistency, and opening up various channels.

Putting emotions aside, looking directly at on-chain data is quite interesting. Plasma's current state is quite distinctive: the total stablecoin market cap is about $1.909 billion, with a slight growth trend over the past seven days, of which USDT accounts for around 80%. The on-chain 24-hour transaction fees are in the hundreds of dollars range, while application-layer fees generated in 24 hours are about $285,000, with net income from applications approaching $25,000. Comparing this to the 24-hour trading volume of decentralized exchanges during the same period, the activity level and capital flow of this ecosystem are already quite indicative.