Ethereum Layer 2 Soars to $5B in Locked Worth. Right here’s Why

key takeaways
- Ethereum’s Layer 2 community has cumulatively surpassed $5 billion in complete worth locked down.
- Optimistic rollup options Arbitrum One and Optimism account for greater than 80% of the locked worth.
- zkSync, which is about to launch its mainnet 2.0 on Friday, has additionally seen its total worth enhance by 19% this week.
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Arbitrum at present holds greater than half of the whole worth locked at Layer 2.
Inside Ethereum Layer 2
Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem is rising.
To l2beat informationThe full worth locked inside the high good contract blockchain’s Layer 2 scaling community topped $5 billion on Wednesday, a 9.2% enhance over the earlier week. The full worth locked on Ethereum Layer 2 is at present round $5.09 billion.
The closing worth jumps within the midst of a bullish interval within the cryptocurrency market. Amidst the surge, ETH has gained nearly 20% in market cap over the previous week and is at present buying and selling round $1,540. ETH is broadly used as a Layer 2 base asset of Ethereum, so its rise someway explains the rise within the complete worth locked.
Arbitrum One and Optimism, two Optimistic Rollup options that collectively account for greater than 80% of the locked worth at Layer 2, have seen a rise of 9.3% and 10.3%, respectively, within the complete locked worth. Arbitrum One at present holds about $2.59 billion, greater than half of the worth locked in at Layer 2.
Nevertheless, whereas the rise in ETH has helped push Layer 2’s lock worth to a brand new all-time excessive, it isn’t the one issue behind the rise. This week is a serious week for the Layer 2 ecosystem as zkSync prepares to launch its new product, zkSync 2.0, on the mainnet Friday. Consequently, capital has flooded the zkSync protocol, up nearly 19% this week. zkSync is a ZK-rollup answer and has seen slower progress than its main Optimist rollup counterparts up to now, however the undertaking is hoping tomorrow’s launch will give the community a lift.
ZK-Rollup and Optimistic Rollup
ZK-Rollups use zero-knowledge proofs to bundle transactions and scale back the quantity of information wanted to validate transactions on the Ethereum mainnet, in flip providing sooner transaction speeds and cheaper charges . In contrast to optimistic rollups, they don’t require an extended rivalry interval to keep up safety (for instance, it takes a few week to ship funds from Arbitrum One to the Ethereum mainnet). Though optimistic rollups are at present main the race for Ethereum’s Layer 2, ZK-rollups have lengthy been touted as a expertise that would assist put together Ethereum for mass adoption. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin mentioned them intimately at this month’s DevCon convention, arguing that they “could also be no less than as necessary to the expertise because the blockchain.”
Curiously, though the whole worth locked on Layer 2 is down from the April 2022 peak in greenback phrases, when it was above $7.4 billion, the quantity of ETH within the ecosystem is now increased. In line with L2Beat information, the present complete locked in worth is roughly 3.25 million ETH, after a gentle enhance over the previous 12 months.

Whereas the Ethereum merge was the second most extremely anticipated replace of the blockchain this 12 months, Ethereum lovers have lengthy anticipated that the expansion of Layer 2 will assist drive mass adoption of the ecosystem by decreasing prices and making the community extra accessible. Will do Whereas the Ethereum mainnet nonetheless holds the majority of all capital within the crypto ecosystem just below $32 billion Locked up, Layer 2 appears to be catching on quick.
Disclosure: On the time of writing this text, the writer owned ETH and several other different crypto belongings.