Exploring the Arbitrum Orbit Ecosystem: 18 Orbit Chains Accelerating Ethereum's Multi-Chain Era
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Exploring the Arbitrum Orbit Ecosystem: 18 Orbit Chains Accelerating Ethereum's Multi-Chain Era
Arbitrum Orbit allows permissionless deployment of dedicated chains. Offchain Labs' co-founder stated that over 50 Arbitrum Orbit chains are currently in development, forecasting 150 Orbit chains on mainnet by 2024.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Karen, Foresight News
January 11 marked a milestone moment for Bitcoin as spot Bitcoin ETFs were finally approved after a decade of repeated applications, opening a new door for traditional investors. Ethereum is widely seen as the next major narrative to emerge in this environment.
Additionally, with Ethereum approaching its Dencun upgrade—centered on EIP-4844—L2 transaction fees are expected to drop significantly while performance improves. As a result, Arbitrum has become a focal point in the market.
The Arbitrum ecosystem has lived up to expectations, demonstrating robust growth and immense potential. Offchain Labs, Arbitrum’s developer team, has followed OP Stack by launching Arbitrum Orbit, a framework enabling the creation of dedicated chains. While adoption currently lags behind OP Stack, Orbit holds promise in accelerating the multi-chain era built on Ethereum.
According to Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, over 50 Arbitrum Orbit chains are currently under development, with projections of 150 Orbit chains live on mainnet by 2024. Foresight News has compiled a list of around 20 Orbit-based projects for readers to explore.
Offchain Labs’ Four-Product Matrix
Before diving into the Arbitrum Orbit ecosystem, let’s review Offchain Labs’ four core product offerings: Arbitrum One (Rollup), Arbitrum Nova (AnyTrust), Arbitrum Orbit, and Stylus. Arbitrum One is an L2 Optimistic Rollup that allows developers to migrate smart contracts from Ethereum to L2 with minimal or no modifications required. The Arbitrum portal lists 275 ecosystem applications, while DefiLlama reports 442 apps, with total TVL reaching $2.3 billion.
Arbitrum Nova is built on AnyTrust technology using a data availability committee, making it better suited for gaming, social applications, and high-volume DApps. For reference: Overview of the Arbitrum Nova Ecosystem: $2.3M in TVL, Still in Early Formation
Arbitrum Orbit, the focus of this article, enables permissionless deployment of custom dedicated chains. Each Orbit chain can be configured to use either Rollup or AnyTrust, with customizable throughput, privacy, gas tokens, governance, protocol logic, and independent roadmaps, while benefiting from the same EVM+ compatibility introduced by Stylus, allowing deployment of EVM-compatible smart contracts using Solidity, C, C++, and Rust.
Earlier this month, Arbitrum Orbit added support for custom gas tokens, allowing Orbit chains to use specific ERC-20 tokens as gas fees. This feature is highly significant, enhancing the utility of native tokens and expanding their ecosystems.
Arbitrum Orbit Ecosystem Overview
According to Foresight News' research, 18 projects have publicly announced plans to launch Orbit chains using Arbitrum Orbit. These projects span gaming, derivatives, liquidity, NFTs, and more, aiming to leverage Orbit's advantages such as low-cost transactions/interactions, high throughput, custom gas tokens, customizable governance, and flexible security models.
In addition, Arbitrum has partnered with rollup-as-a-service platforms Caldera, AltLayer, and Conduit to support developers launching their own custom rollups.
Xai
Xai is an Arbitrum Orbit L3 gaming-specific chain developed in collaboration with Offchain Labs and managed by the Xai Foundation, utilizing AnyTrust technology. According to Xai documentation, Offchain Labs will develop and operate the Xai blockchain under the guidance of the Xai Foundation, providing ongoing marketing support for the Xai network and ecosystem.
Tailored specifically for gaming, Xai aims to provide gamers with abstracted wallet and account experiences, offer developers higher gas and contract limits, and build a fully decentralized ecosystem promoting trust and transparency among all participants.
The primary goal of the Xai Foundation is to foster developer and game growth within the XAI blockchain ecosystem, attract third-party developers and games to the platform, and promote effective marketing strategies for games deployed on Xai.
Xai was featured in Binance’s 43rd Launchpool event. The Xai token will serve as the primary currency within the gaming ecosystem, used for payments for games and in-game items. Game studio Ex Populus is the first developer deploying games on Xai, currently working on "Final Form" and "LAMOverse." Xai has already launched its mainnet, and according to its roadmap, its collectible card game "Final Form" will release in April.
https://xai.games/
Frame
Frame is an Arbitrum Orbit L2 project built for creators and collectors using the Arbitrum Nitro tech stack, set to launch its mainnet on January 31.
In December 2023, Frame announced a new funding round with participation from Electric Capital, 9gag founder Ray Chan, Luca Netz, and former Sushiswap CEO 0xMaki.
RARI Chain
RARI Chain is an EVM-equivalent chain built on Arbitrum, governed in a decentralized manner by the RARI token holder community and RARI DAO. Rarible will integrate RARI Chain into the Rarible Protocol (NFT marketplace) and its turnkey marketplace solution, Rarible X.
RARI Chain enables users to transact at low cost and supports credit card payments in ETH, USDC, or USD. This is achieved through integration with Arbitrum Anytrust for data availability.
RARI Chain has also partnered with Caldera, Gelato, LayerZero, Magic, Rarible, Thirdweb, and WalletConnect. For example, LayerZero allows developers to create collections transferable across chains seamlessly without fragmentation or external risks via the ONFT standard; gasless minting on RARI Chain is powered by Gelato, while Thirdweb brings account abstraction and fiat payment capabilities to the chain.
https://rarichain.org/
Cometh
In October 2023, Cometh, a Web3 gaming and DApp development platform, announced a collaboration with AltLayer (a rollup-as-a-service project) and Arbitrum to deploy a Layer3 rollup called "Muster." AltLayer will enable developers to launch highly modular, application-specific rollups.
Cometh will also launch its card game Cosmik Battle on Muster, leveraging Arbitrum Orbit’s scalability potential, low costs, and fast confirmation times.
https://www.cometh.io/
Syndr
Syndr is an institutional-grade options and futures trading protocol. Its Syndr Chain is an application-specific Layer3 rollup launching as an Arbitrum Orbit chain in partnership with Caldera. Syndr Chain is already live on the Arbitrum Goerli testnet.
Syndr abstracts away the underlying architecture to deliver a seamless trading experience. Additionally, Syndr does not charge traders gas fees, ensuring all transactions occur without gas fees or MetaMask pop-ups.
https://www.syndr.com/zh
Meliora
Meliora is an Arbitrum Orbit L3 that leverages the Arbitrum Orbit Rollup Stack to ensure fast and cost-effective transaction processing, designed to create an ecosystem for fixed-income and credit-based applications. Meliora contributor Volatilis is also developing The CREDIT Protocol, a fixed-income and fee-free periodic settlement lending protocol.
Meliora supports gas payments in either MELIORA or CREDIT tokens. According to Meliora’s official website, the native MELIORA token is designed to foster a collaborative and economically incentivized ecosystem, reflected in sequencer operations, gas, MEV fee sharing, validator staking, governance, and as a gas token.
The CREDIT Protocol previously announced in late November 2023 that it would launch its second testnet season on December 1, offering users the opportunity to earn retroactive Meliora token airdrop points. However, no further updates have been released since then.
https://meliorachain.io/
OurSong
OurSong is a social music NFT platform. In April 2022, its parent company, Our Happy Company, raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by Infinity Ventures and Animoca Brands, with participation from Cherubic Ventures, Circle Ventures, and others.
Our Happy Company was co-founded by renowned musician and producer John Legend, KKBOX founder Chris Lin, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin. Its flagship product, OurSong, aims to empower creators—including musicians and artists—with fairer digital services, monetization tools, and community-building features.
Arbitrum disclosed in October last year that OurSong had joined the Orbit chain ecosystem, though no further progress has been shared since.
https://www.oursong.com/
Deri Protocol
Deri Protocol is a decentralized derivatives protocol that launched Deri V4 on the Arbitrum mainnet in late November 2023 with support from AltLayer. Deri Protocol states that by leveraging Arbitrum Orbit, Deri V4 will expand Arbitrum’s reach across various L1 and L2 networks.
https://deri.io/
Hook Protocol
Hook Protocol is an NFT derivatives DEX supporting both perpetuals and options. It released the preview version of Hook Odyssey testnet in November. Odyssey is an NFT-focused derivatives DEX deployed on a customized Arbitrum Orbit chain.
https://hook.xyz/
Superposition
Superposition is a DeFi-native Layer3 built atop Arbitrum, offering a native, permissionless order book that allows any developer to tap into shared deep liquidity. It also delivers a seamless user experience through account abstraction.
Superposition’s roadmap includes Superposition Layer (an L3 chain built on Arbitrum One), Superposition DEX, and cross-chain functionality. The project is leveraging Orbit technology to achieve dedicated throughput, native account abstraction, and enhanced performance and lower costs via Stylus.
https://www.superposition.so/
Nitrogen (AltLayer)
Rollup-as-a-service protocol AltLayer launched Nitrogen on January 10—a public testnet based on Arbitrum Orbit, using Celestia as a modular data availability layer, secured by Arbitrum Nitro fraud proofs, and integrated with Celestia Blobstream on Arbitrum Sepolia.
With Nitrogen, L2 transaction data is written as blobs to Celestia instead of being published as Ethereum calldata. Once validated by Celestia’s validator set, the resulting DA proof is stored in the Blobstream DA contract on Ethereum, making calldata costs nearly negligible.
AltLayer stated that with Celestia, developers can now deploy Orbit chains like smart contracts with minimal setup time or overhead.
https://altlayer.io/
Parallel Network
Parallel Network is an omnichain Layer2 scaling solution built on Ethereum and powered by Arbitrum Orbit, aiming to unify liquidity from any chain into one place. Parallel Network is supported by Arbitrum’s Nitro stack, Conduit, and cross-chain interoperability protocol Socket.
Parallel Network also partners with account abstraction infrastructure Pimlico to support ERC-4337 account abstraction on Parallel.
The Parallel Network mainnet is open to developers, currently allowing users to bridge ETH to Parallel via an early access program. The Parallel website features an airdrop section, though details remain undisclosed.
https://bridge.parallel.fi/
Kinto
Kinto was originally a KYC-compliant Layer2 network based on OP Stack, designed to connect financial institutions and real-world assets through DeFi. In November last year, Kinto decided to launch as part of the Arbitrum Orbit ecosystem.
Kinto is an L2 rollup based on Arbitrum Nitro technology, operating as an Optimistic Rollup parallel to Arbitrum One and Nova, providing KYC, insurance, AML, and fraud monitoring at the blockchain level. All participants undergo KYC verification, and the network continuously runs AML checks. Only verified participants can execute transactions.
Kinto allocates 60% of its governance and utility token KINTO to community members, mostly distributed to users and developers building on the platform, 25% to pre-seed, seed investors, and advisors (with a three-year vesting period), and 15% to team members (also with a three-year vesting period).
According to Kinto’s documentation, the network will fully launch in February 2024 and is currently in Engen (soft launch) phase.
https://kinto.xyz/
Avive World
Avive World is a DePin and UBI project on Arbitrum and a token-gated community that launched the Avive testnet on Arbitrum Orbit in collaboration with AltLayer.
Using its Proof-of-Network (PON) mechanism, Avive World incentivizes users to actively grow social connections within the Avive ecosystem, rewarding meaningful participation, contributions, and support within the community.
Partners listed on the Avive World website include Arbitrum, OKX, AltLayer, Biconomy, and Particle Network.
https://www.avive.world/
Fiefdom
Fiefdom is an Orbit chain using Arbitrum AnyTrust, designed specifically for gaming and transactions in the metaverse. As a Layer3 network, Fiefdom offers low-latency, low-cost transactions. The FIEF token serves as the gas token on the Fiefdom network.
Its Fief Protocol is a multi-chain platform enabling metaverse asset trading and rewards earning via the FIEF token, along with decentralized fee distribution.
https://www.fief.gg/
Alpha Dune Network
Alpha Dune Network, powered by Arbitrum Nitro, is a loyalty-driven, gaming-centric chain. Caldera will help Alpha Dune launch and manage dedicated rollups for its Web3 gaming applications (e.g., Houndrace and Dune Crown). Alpha Dune will also use Celestia as its primary data availability solution.
https://alphadune.com/
Polychain Monsters
Polychain Monsters is a multi-chain NFT collection and gaming ecosystem. Last October, it announced a collaboration with AltLayer to introduce an omnichain monster battle system. Additionally, Polychain Monsters will launch a custom chain using Arbitrum Orbit.
Sanko GameCorp
Sanko GameCorp is an on-chain gaming studio planning to release a blockchain-native console and arcade called "Dream Machine." Sanko GameCorp plans to launch its Orbit chain via Caldera.
https://sankodreammachine.net/
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