Synapse allows users to send tokens from one chain to another almost immediately by using AMMs deployed across 16+ EVM and non-EVM blockchains. 

Synapse is a cross-chain liquidity network that enables fully non-custodial transfers between EVM and non-EVM compatible chains and L2 systems. Synapse was launched in 2021.

SYN tokenholders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the transaction fees paid by the users (revenue). Synapse’s investors include CMS Holdings, Alameda Research, Primitive Ventures, etc.

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Synapse

# Synapse Average fees per user (AFPU) Methodology

## 1. Overview

Average Fees Per User (AFPU) measures the average amount of fees paid per daily active user on the Synapse cross-chain bridge protocol. This metric answers the question: "How much revenue does Synapse generate per user on average each day?" The calculation divides total daily fees collected across all supported chains by the number of unique daily active users performing cross-chain transfers.

## 2. Data sources

The calculation relies on several key data sources:

- **Synapse bridge events**: Parsed event logs from Synapse bridge contracts across eight supported chains (Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BSC, Ethereum, Fantom, Optimism, and Polygon)
- **Cross-chain transfer events**: Multiple event types including `TokenMint`, `TokenWithdraw`, `TokenMintAndSwap`, `TokenWithdrawAndRemove`, `TokenDepositAndSwap`, `TokenRedeemAndSwap`, `TokenRedeemAndRemove`, `TokenRedeem`, `TokenRedeemV2`, and `TokenDeposit` events
- **CCTP events**: Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol events (`CircleRequestFulfilled` and `CircleRequestSent`) available on select chains (Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism)
- **End-of-day price feeds**: Token price data used for USD conversion of fee amounts
- **Token metadata**: Information about token decimals and contract addresses for accurate value calculation
- **nToken mappings**: Predefined mappings between Synapse's native tokens (nTokens) and their alternative token equivalents for price conversion

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Fee extraction and processing

- **Purpose**: Extract and process fee amounts from Synapse bridge operations across all supported chains
- **Logic**: The system identifies fee-generating events from Synapse bridge contracts, specifically focusing on destination-chain events where fees are collected. Events include various token minting, withdrawal, and swap operations that occur during cross-chain transfers. Each event contains a `fee` field representing the fee amount charged in the destination token. For events involving Synapse's native tokens (nTokens), the system maps these to alternative tokens using predefined mappings to enable proper price conversion
- **Key fields**: `fee` amounts from bridge events, `token` addresses for the fee denomination, `block_timestamp` for temporal aggregation, `chain` for multi-chain support

### Component B: Fee USD conversion and aggregation

- **Purpose**: Convert fee amounts to USD and aggregate by day
- **Logic**: Fee amounts are converted from their native token denomination to USD using end-of-day price feeds. The system applies decimal correction based on each token's decimal places to ensure accurate value calculation. All USD-converted fees are then summed by day across all chains and all bridge operations to produce total daily fee revenue
- **Key fields**: `fee_amount` in USD after conversion and decimal correction, `timestamp` truncated to day for daily aggregation

### Component C: Daily active user identification

- **Purpose**: Count unique users performing cross-chain transfers each day
- **Logic**: The system extracts user addresses from the same bridge events used for fee calculation. Depending on the event type, users are identified from either the `to` field (for minting and withdrawal events) or the `sender`/`recipient` fields (for CCTP events). All users are classified as 'Trader' type users. The system captures addresses from all supported chains and event types to ensure comprehensive user coverage
- **Key fields**: `user_address` from various address fields in bridge events, `block_timestamp` for daily grouping, `chain` for multi-chain user activity

### Component D: User count aggregation with HyperLogLog

- **Purpose**: Efficiently count unique daily active users across all chains and provide dimensional breakdowns
- **Logic**: The system uses HyperLogLog (HLL) data structures for efficient approximate counting of unique user addresses. This allows for scalable computation while maintaining accuracy for large user sets. User counts are aggregated at multiple dimensional levels including total project level, by individual chain, by user type, and by product. Daily unique users are calculated by merging HLL sketches and extracting the final count
- **Key fields**: `user_dau` as HLL-computed unique user counts, various dimensional breakdowns for analysis flexibility

### Final aggregation

- **Combining components**: Daily fee totals in USD are divided by daily active user counts to produce the average fees per user metric. The calculation uses the aggregated fee amounts from Component B and the HLL-computed user counts from Component D
- **Currency conversion**: All fee amounts are converted to USD using end-of-day price feeds with appropriate decimal correction applied based on each token's specifications
- **Time aggregation**: Both fees and user counts are aggregated to daily boundaries using day-truncated timestamps, ensuring temporal alignment between numerator and denominator
- **Final calculation**: AFPU = Total Daily Fees (USD) / Daily Active Users, with zero-filling applied for days with no activity to maintain complete time series data

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

SynapseSYN

Average fees per user (AFPU)

Average fees per user (AFPU)

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