Ethereum L2s now hold $37.4B TVL – Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism lead the charge

Following a merger of Ethereum’s [ETH] Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) into one holistic roadmap, the scaling upgrades seem to be working. For instance, Pectra Upgrade expanded L2 blob throughput, while Fusaka Upgrade increased data availability by 8x.

That is not just heresy. It is backed by the recent on-chain data. Here are the details:

Peak usage meets minimal cost—what does it mean?

Overlaying the cost of transactions with the number of activities on the blockchain is a powerful tool for assessing whether the scaling upgrades are working.

The weekly transaction count on Ethereum is at an all-time high of 1.8 million, and at one point, it reached 21 million. This indicated peak usage of the network. It represented a surge of 15% in monthly transaction count.

On the other hand, the median transaction fee was at an all-time low (ATL) of $0.008. This divergence in cost from transaction count suggested Ethereum’s scaling upgrades were working.

To confirm this hypothesis that Ethereum’s scaling upgrades were working, we need to look into activity on L2s.

Other supporting datasets

For instance, total blob fees have reached 1.492 million ETH as per Dune Analytics. This shows the adoption of proto-danksharding, an upgrade that saves transaction costs through temporary space-saving data blobs.

It indicates scaling demand has shifted to L2 while settlement remains on the Ethereum mainnet.

Transactions on L2s have also spiked immensely since late June, led by Robinhood Chain. It tops the monthly change in the number of transactions at 30,922% and accounts for 13.9% of all transactions by L2s.

However, the majority of L2 transactions are done on Base, about 248.3 million, which accounts for 29.1%. Base Chain’s transactions have increased by 13.4%, behind Arbitrum One [ARB] and Optimism [OP], at 22.2% and 19.2%, respectively.

Similarly, the Total Value Locked (TVL) of L2s is growing, showing that scaling in the ecosystem is expanding. For L2s, the total is $37.41 billion, almost half of the total TVL on the ETH mainnet.

For instance, Base Chain has the highest TVL, which rose to around $11.86 billion, up 1.04%. It is followed by Arbitrum One, ZKsync, and OP Mainnet, all of which are up except for ZKsync.

Lastly, the number of monthly active users on Ethereum has increased by 2.9%, to around 8.3 million. As such, it meant Ethereum was not only processing more transactions cheaply but also attracting new users and securing more capital.

Final Summary

• Ethereum’s weekly transaction count peaks at 18M while fees remain at ATL, a sign that ecosystem scaling upgrades are working. 
• The increase in Blob fees, transactions, and TVL of L2s indicates a holistic upgrade across the whole Ethereum ecosystem.