The whole worth locked (TVL) on Ethereum layer-2 networks lately hit a brand new all-time excessive in January, a testomony to the continued adoption of Ethereum. Layer 2 networks sit on high of the Ethereum blockchain and assist scale it by processing transactions off-chain earlier than sending information again to the primary blockchain. 

In response to information from L2BEAT, a layer-2 analytics platform, the TVL on these scaling options lately reached an all-time excessive of $21.16 billion, representing a 340% development from the identical day final 12 months. 

Ethereum Layer-2 Networks Hit New Milestone

2023 was an incredible 12 months for Ethereum, because the altcoin and its scaling options registered a gentle enhance in TVL regardless of sturdy competitors from different networks like Solana and Cardano. Knowledge from L2Beat exhibits the TVL on these scaling options began in 2023 with $4.81 billion however grew steadily all through to finish the 12 months at $19.98 billion {dollars}, a 315% development. 

This development was significantly exacerbated within the final quarter of 2023 and continued into 2024. The TVL grew by $1.18 billion within the first three days of January to achieve $21.16 on January 3, its present all-time excessive.

On the time of writing, the TVL is now at $20.41 billion, nonetheless up by 3.82% previously seven days. A big fraction of this layer-2 TVL may be attributed to Arbitrum One, with the scaling resolution presently having $10.05 billion price of cryptocurrencies locked. 

OP Mainnet, previously known as Optimism, is second with a present TVL of $5.84 billion. 57% of this TVL consists of OP tokens, in comparison with Arbitrum One, whose ARB token constitutes solely 36% of the TVL. 

ETH value holds $2,200 | Supply: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com

State Of The ETH Community

This huge development exhibits that Ethereum customers are flocking to layer 2 networks to flee excessive gasoline charges and congestion on the mainnet. Ethereum’s TVL additionally witnessed regular development all year long, including $7.6 billion within the final quarter of 2023. Knowledge from DeFiLlama exhibits the TVL on Ethereum is now at $28.532 billion.

Nonetheless, Ethereum has seen its every day energetic addresses and transaction depend plunge in the previous couple of months. Knowledge from Artemis revealed the community is presently being surpassed by Solana and Sui by way of every day transaction depend. Latest competitors from Solana prompted an analyst to describe Ethereum as digging its personal grave by relying an excessive amount of on its layer-2 networks for scalability.

Some layer-2 chains are additionally presently processing extra transactions than Ethereum itself. L2BEAT places the month-to-month transactions on zkSync Period and Arbitrum at 39.91 million and 35.54 million respectively, forward of Ethereum’s depend of 33.91 million transactions.