As the underlying construction, the public chain has always been an important cornerstone supporting the entire Web3 world. Whether it is processing transactions, executing smart contracts, or ensuring network security, the performance of the public chain will directly affect the implementation of the blockchain.

Will Arbitrum cease to be a Layer 2 overlord?

Competition in the public chain sector is fierce. Ethereum Layer 2 is a key track for many blockchain development teams to compete, from veteran Layer 2 such as Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, and Starknet to the recent Blast, Base, Manta Pacific, and Taiko. and other emerging Layer2s; according to L2Beat data, the number of Layer2s today has reached 105. However, Arbitrum, the leader in Layer 2, has recently been surpassed by the OP Stack project Base in all aspects, which seems to indicate that Arbitrum’s dominance in the past three years has come to an end.

Increased activity on Base chain

Foreign media (Cryptopolitan) believes that Base’s average TPS (Txns per Second, transactions per second) increased by 51% (72.87 transactions) on October 20; Arbitrum only increased by 17.5% (21.13 transactions). In fact, this is mainly due to the difference in the number of transactions in a single day. According to Artemis Terminal, Base’s transaction volume on October 20 was 6.3 million transactions, while Arbitrum’s was 1.8 million transactions. The two were divided by the daily transaction volume. 86400 seconds, we will naturally get values ​​similar to the TPS of the day─72.91 and 20.83; it can be seen that the increase in TPS only represents the trading status of that day, so we should pay more attention to the long-term trend changes.

Figure source: Artemis Terminal Layer2 daily transaction volume

As can be seen from the figure above, Base's daily transaction volume has shown a steady growth trend since the beginning of the year, and it crossed with Arbitrum on June 22, becoming the Layer 2 public chain with the highest single-day transaction volume.

In terms of the number of active users (picture below), Artemis data also shows the same trend. Base crossed golden with Arbitrum on July 20, and has grown rapidly since then, continuing to hit record highs. On October 20, the number of active addresses reached 2.4 million, far exceeding Arbitrum’s 535,000 and Scroll’s 101,000.

Source: Artemis Terminal Layer2 Daily Active Users

On-chain transaction volume

Decentralized exchange platforms (DEXs) are essential infrastructure for the DeFi sector, so the on-chain transaction volume (DEXs Volume) that will be mentioned in the (CryptoCity) weekly report series is also one of the important indicators for judging the activity of the public chain. Artemis data shows that in the past month, Base's single-day on-chain transaction volume has steadily surpassed Arbitrum's, and its single-week transaction volume hit a record high of $6.335 billion last week, ranking first in Layer 2.

Image source: Artemis Terminal Layer2 single-day on-chain transaction volume

Total locked value

The total lock-up value (TVL) is the amount of liquidity in a public chain, which usually reflects the level of confidence of DeFi participants in each public chain or protocol. Base’s total locked-up value surpassed Arbitrum on October 15, becoming the Layer 2 network with the largest amount of liquidity.

Image source: Artemis Terminal Layer2 total locked value

revenue performance

The gas fee income of the public chain often directly affects the ecological construction of the development team. According to the Artemis fee chart, Base’s median fee in the past three months exceeded US$30,000, followed by Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, and Scroll and Linea.

Image source: Artemis Terminal Layer2 single-day total fee income

In what metric is Base inferior to Arbitrum?

This series of outstanding data shows that the activities on the Base chain have grown significantly and will serve as the cornerstone for its Layer 2 leadership. Currently, Arbitrum’s only activeness indicator that can compete with Base is Perps Volume; decentralized perpetual contracts are the focus of Arbitrum’s ecological development and are closely related to its DeFi performance.

According to DefiLlama, among the top 15 public chains with on-chain perpetual contract transaction volume in the past week, Ethereum Layer 2 occupied 6 of them, namely Arbitrum (USD 3.703 billion), Base (USD 2.836 billion), and zkSync (USD 2.281 billion). , Blast ($1.299 billion), Linea ($309 million) and OP Mainnet ($279 million); while the gap between Base and Arbitrum is $867 million, this number is not big.

Image source: Top 15 public chains with sustainable transaction volume on the DefiLlama chain

Base launched the tokenized Bitcoin $cbBTC last month. When users send Bitcoin through their Coinbase account, Coinbase will mint $cbBTC worth 1:1 anchored to Bitcoin. This will allow The large amount of Bitcoin inventory on the Coinbase exchange is seamlessly connected to the Base blockchain, introducing huge liquidity to its ecosystem, thus attracting more funds (TVL improvement). If development goes smoothly, $cbBTC will be expected to serve as one of the catalysts for Base’s ecological activities and further establish Base’s dominance in the Layer 2 circuit.

[Disclaimer] There are risks in the market, so investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions contained in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly and do so at your own risk.