Ethereum used to be called an aristocratic chain because its network processing performance was poor, making smart contract interactions too expensive; therefore, around the first half of 2021, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik began to vigorously promote Layer2 Rollups. In a nutshell, Rollups outsources the transaction function of Ethereum, lets other blockchains be responsible for execution, and then transmits the transaction results back to Ethereum for final verification. Through this division of labor model, Rollups can greatly reduce network load, thereby reducing transaction fees.

What problems does the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem face?

Time has come now, and Layer 2 on Ethereum has blossomed, from old Layer 2 such as Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, and Starknet to recent emerging Layer 2 such as Blast, Base, Manta Pacific, and Taiko; according to L2Beat data, the number of Layer 2 has reached 105 strip.

However, this situation has also caused Ethereum's liquidity to be too fragmented; assets scattered in different Layer 2 cannot directly communicate with each other due to different operating networks, and they need to rely on Ethereum or the third-party cross-chain bridge. Such inconvenience may prompt chain users to gradually turn to Solana or other Monolithic Layer1 (a single chain solves all needs) in the long run, leading to the loss of users. Therefore, "cross-chain liquidity integration" has become one of the primary goals of Ethereum at this stage.

Earlier, Vitalik tweeted that Optimism GitHub has released a functional introduction that allows the super chain to conduct cross-chain minting & destroy ERC20, indicating that he is very happy to see this; on the other hand, the text also revealed his expectations for the developer ecosystem. concerns:

"How many infrastructure builders in Ethereum are willing to truly cooperate and build a unified ecosystem?"

Image source: DefiLlama Vitalik said that Optimism is one of the few Layer 2 development teams currently focusing on cross-chain liquidity solutions.

Ethereum’s two Layer2 giants: Arbitrum vs OP Stack super chain

In the Ethereum ecosystem, Arbitrum can be said to be the first Layer 2 blockchain to launch the mainnet, and it has indeed grasped the first-mover advantage. It has been the most liquid Layer 2 public chain since the launch of the mainnet. Arbitrum's largest rival is Optimism, which is also the Layer 2 public chain that released the mainnet immediately after Arbitrum (even earlier than Arbitrum issued the governance token, $OP). The reason Optimism has gained the upper hand is not only because of its first-mover advantage. Its developer-friendly OP Stack allows public chain construction teams to quickly and easily deploy Layer 2 blockchains; this advantage not only improves development efficiency, but also reduces startup time. The threshold has further enabled OP Stack to be adopted by many Layer 2 development teams, including Coinbase and Worldcoin, forming an "OP SuperChain Ecosystem".

According to DefiLlama, among the top 15 public chains with total lock-up value (TVL), there are a total of 5 projects belonging to Ethereum Layer 2. They are Arbitrum (USD 2.388 billion), Base (USD 2.252 billion), and Scroll in order of TVL. ($732 million), Blast ($677 million) and Optmism ($640 million). Among them, Base, Blast and Optimism are all OP Stack super chains; and Base maintains a gap of only about 100 million US dollars with Arbitrum, the current Layer 2 leader.

Image source: DefiLlama Ethereum Layer2 total locked position value ranking

In fact, it can also be seen from the TVL chart that the number of active addresses of Base in the past 24 hours has far exceeded Arbitrum (1.11 million vs. 380,000). If the cross-chain liquidity integration of the Optimism super chain ecosystem can proceed smoothly, Base, The total lock-up value, addresses and other data of large-scale super chains such as Blast and Optimism can be regarded as one, and the leading throne of Ethereum Layer 2 may change.

The performance on the chain is that the super chain is more active?

Further expanding on the on-chain transaction volume (DEXs Volume), this data shows that Base’s transaction volume has surpassed Arbitrum in the past week. Among the top 15 public chains in terms of on-chain transaction volume in a single week, Ethereum Layer 2 occupies 5 of them, namely Base (USD 4.689 billion), Arbitrum (USD 3.186 billion), Optimism (USD 660 million), and Mantle (USD 219 million). ) and Scroll ($191 million). By the way, Mantle also belongs to the OP Stack super chain like Base.

Image source: DefiLlama Ethereum Layer2 single-week on-chain transaction volume ranking

Despite this, if the main battlefield is drawn to the on-chain derivatives track where Arbitrum is best, there is still a gap between Super Chain and Arbitrum. Among the top 15 public chains with on-chain perpetual contract transaction volume in the past week, Ethereum Layer 2 occupied 7 of them, namely Arbitrum (USD 4.451 billion), zkSync (USD 2.174 billion), Base (USD 967 million), Mantle (USD 967 million) US$478 million), Linea (US$416 million), Optimism (US$284 million) and Blast (US$235 million); while the total transaction volume of Superchain (red box below) is still less than half of Arbitrum (blue box) .

Image source: DefiLlama Ethereum Layer2 Perpetual Contract Transaction Volume Ranking on the Chain in One Week

Optimism is expected to promote the improvement of Layer2 ecology

In summary, Superchain Ecosystem is slightly better in terms of DEXs Volume and number of active addresses, while Arbitrum is in a dominant position in terms of TVL and Perps Volume. However, Base has recently benefited from the promotion effect of on-chain meme coins, and its DeFi ecosystem is in a period of accelerated expansion. It may be possible to see its TVL surpass Arbitrum in the near future. In any case, with the increasing adoption of Web3, funds and users are bound to continue to pour into Layer 2 public chains; after Optimism completes the cross-chain liquidity integration of the super chain, assets and users are expected to be seamlessly integrated in various Layer 2 ecosystems transfer, further laying the foundation for mass adoption of Ethereum.

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