Surging Optimism Ecosystem Drives Layer 2 TVL To New Heights

The total value locked in Ethereum Layer 2s is at new all-time highs following explosive growth from networks within the Optimism ecosystem.

On Dec. 28, the value of assets bridged onto L2s posted a record total value locked (TVL) of $20.2B, according to L2beat. The milestone was driven by surging adoption of chains building on Optimism’s OP Stack chains, with Manta Pacific rocketing 173% in seven days to tag $363M, Metis Andromeda surging 146% at $632M, and OP Mainnet gaining 22% at $6.07B.

The impressive performance of Optimism’s Stack ecosystem has pushed Arbitrum’s TVL dominance over the L2 sector below 50% for the first time in more than two years. The combined network TVL of Layer 2s is up 83% in ten weeks.

The price of Optimism’s OP token is also rallying, with OP doubling over the past 30 days including a 35% gain in the past week, according to CoinGecko. METIS is up a whopping 168% over the same period, while Mantle’s MNT token is also up 11.4%.

Manta’s growth has been propelled by airdrop opportunists, with the project set to reward early users with an airdrop next month.

Superchain

Optimism launched the open-source OP Stack alongside its Bedrock upgrade in June, allowing anyone to permissionlessly build their own Layer 2 networks leveraging on top of the tech stack. Optimism plans to unify OP Stack-based chains into a symbiotic ecosystem dubbed the “Superchain” in the future.

Six months later, chains leveraging the new OP Stack or older OVM codebase now account for five of the eight-largest L2 networks by TVL. The OP Mainnet, Base, Metis, Manta, and Mantle boast a combined network TVL of nearly $8B, meaning the Optimism ecosystem commands a 39.5% dominance over the combined Layer 2 TVL.

However, in October, Manta announced plans to drop the OP Stack in favor of Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK) in the future.

On-chain activity for Mantle has also skyrocketed, with the network currently topping the L2 leaderboard by throughput. Mantle processed 25.5 transactions per second (TPS) on average over the past 24 hours — nearly double that of the Ethereum mainnet — driven by rampant activity surrounding its recently deployed inscriptions protocol.

L2 tokens soar

Investors appear to be hedging their bets across Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem

MATIC, the Polygon network token, is up 21% in seven days, briefly surpassing a $10B market cap on Dec. 28. Arbitrum’s ARB token is also up 26% for the week, while Loopring (LRC) rallied 17.4%.

The bullish momentum surrounding L2s follows impressive rallies for alternative Layer 1s, led by Solana’s nearly 900% year-to-date gains, as investors bet on which networks will emerge as hotbeds for on-chain activity amid the next market cycle.