A Look at the Five Major Whales of Ethereum Layer2
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A Look at the Five Major Whales of Ethereum Layer2
The top five networks occupy 80% of the market share.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Lucent
Translation: Baicai Blockchain
On July 2, ZKSync launched Elastic Chain—the ZKSync 3.0 protocol upgrade. This upgrade enables the creation of an interoperable network of ZK chains built using ZK Stack—more akin to Optimism’s Superchain and Arbitrum’s Orbit but for ZK-based rollups. According to BSCN, Lens Protocol plans to officially launch on mainnet on ZKSync in the last quarter of 2024.
On September 4, the long-awaited upgrade from MATIC to POL will go live on the Polygon PoS network. POL will replace MATIC as the native gas and staking token on the PoS chain. DeFi protocols and dApps on Polygon PoS, Ethereum, and zkEVM will update their infrastructure to support the POL token. Users who stake or delegate MATIC on Ethereum to secure the Polygon PoS network will have their MATIC automatically converted into POL.
In this editorial, we dive deep into Ethereum's Layer 2 landscape and examine the giants shaping this space.
Since Arbitrum and Optimism first entered the rollup race in 2021, dozens of other networks have emerged, each taking different approaches to scaling Ethereum. According to L2BEAT, there are currently 63 active Layer 2 networks, with another 80 in development. The total value locked (TVL) across these networks stands at approximately $44 billion. The top five networks account for the vast majority of this TVL, collectively holding over 80% of the total value. These can be considered the whales of Ethereum's L2 ecosystem.
In this article, we provide a brief overview of these leading Layer 2 networks, highlighting their key features, supported projects, and more. Let’s begin.
1. Top Five Ethereum Layer 2 Networks by TVL
1) #5 Mantle
Coming in fifth is Mantle, which has a TVL of $1.37 billion at the time of writing. Launched in July 2023, Mantle aims to drive mass adoption of decentralized and tokenized governance technologies. Over the past month, the network recorded 797,000 active addresses and 13.59 million transactions. Mantle adopts a modular approach, separating transaction execution, consensus, settlement, and data availability into distinct layers.
A key feature of the Mantle ecosystem is its strong financial backing and incentive programs. One example is a $200 million ecosystem fund catalyzed by $100 million in USDC from BitDAO’s treasury, aimed at investing in native applications and technology partners building on Mantle. Additionally, they’ve allocated a total of $300 million in USDx, ETH, BTC, and MNT to provide liquidity support for applications, thereby fostering ecosystem growth and partnerships. This liquidity support helps attract and retain projects building on Mantle.
To celebrate its one-year anniversary, Mantle is currently running a commemorative NFT minting campaign, which is still ongoing.
2) #4 Blast
Blast L2 is an Optimistic Rollup that offers native yield generation for Ether (ETH) and stablecoins. This means users can earn yield directly on ETH and stablecoins held on the Blast L2 network without needing additional staking or yield farming protocols. The network has a total value locked (TVL) of $2.65 billion, with over 860,000 active addresses and 20.89 million transactions in the past month.
By sharing gas revenue with dApp developers, Blast gives them the flexibility to either retain the revenue or use it to subsidize user gas fees. Blast conducted its airdrop snapshot and token distribution on June 26, 2024, and users have 30 days to claim their airdrop.
Beyond the significant airdrop, users on Blast can now bridge between Blast and the Ethereum mainnet within seven days—twice as fast as the previous 14-day window. Protocols like Orbit Protocol offering lending and borrowing
3) #3 Optimism
The Optimism mainnet launched in December 2021 and is now the third-largest Layer 2 solution in the Ethereum ecosystem, with a TVL of $6.77 billion. It recorded 1.79 million active addresses and 14.21 million transactions over the past month. The Optimism Foundation is not just building a rollup—it is also developing an interconnected ecosystem of L2s called the Superchain.
A portion of Optimism’s transaction fees funds the "Retroactive Public Goods Funding" (RetroPGF) program, which rewards projects that deliver value to the Optimism ecosystem. The RetroPGF initiative launched in 2023, with the first round of grant applications opening in January 2023. Since then, Optimism has allocated 850 million OP tokens (20% of the initial supply) to the program. Across the first three rounds, a total of 30 million OP tokens were distributed to contributors. RetroPGF is currently in its fourth round.
Some top projects operating on Optimism include Aave V3, Synthetix, and Velodrome.
4) #2 Base
Launched by Coinbase in 2023, Base has experienced rapid growth and quickly surpassed competitors to become the second-largest rollup, with a current TVL of $7.27 billion. In the past month, the network saw 9.55 million active addresses and 94.12 million transactions.
Base aims to be a highly secure and decentralized Layer 2 solution, leveraging Optimism’s OP Stack—including advanced features such as fraud proofs and state commitments—to ensure robust security. The network is also a key participant in the Optimism Superchain initiative. Leading projects such as Aave, Synthetix, Immutable X, and Uniswap are all deployed on Base.
5) #1 Arbitrum
Arbitrum is the giant among Ethereum rollups. It firmly holds the top spot, accounting for approximately 40% of the entire Layer 2 market share. Over the past 30 days, 7.15 million active addresses interacted with the network, generating 62.13 million transactions.
Similar to Optimism, Arbitrum is building an ecosystem of permissionless chains under its Arbitrum Orbit framework. Many prominent DeFi platforms operate on Arbitrum One, including Uniswap, Aave, Ankr, and OpenSea.
In addition to Arbitrum One, Arbitrum launched Arbitrum Nova in August 2022. Nova is a new chain built using AnyTrust technology, designed to further scale the Ethereum blockchain. Arbitrum Nova significantly reduces costs and is one of the most cost-effective blockchains available today. The chain primarily focuses on high-throughput dApps, making it ideal for gaming applications, NFTs, tools, nodes, and bridges.
2. Related Data
Total value locked on L2s surpasses $40 billion!
Top ten projects ranked by total value locked (TVL):
3. Project Details
1) Arbitrum
Top projects by TVL over the last seven days:
2) Optimism
Top projects by TVL over the last seven days:
3) zkSync
Top projects by TVL over the last seven days:
4) zkEVM
Top projects by TVL over the last seven days:
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