Coinbase-Incubated Ethereum Layer-2 Network Base has seen activity on the network increase significantly in recent months, despite the overall decline in adoption for other Ethereum L2 networks, including leaders like Arbitrum and Optimism.
According to on-chain data, the combined transaction per second (TPS) for all Ethereum Layer-2 and Layer-3 networks averaged 254.5 TPS during the 24 hours of October 6. This throughput represents a 73% decrease over all other networks. time high of 440.4 TPS on August 20 and highlights how Ethereum scaling solutions have struggled to gain traction in recent months.
For L2s rollups alone, networks recorded their lowest TPS since June 10, at just 101.8 TPS, which represents a 33.5% drop from September 11, when it was 153.2 TPS.
The networks with the biggest declines were Arbitrum and Linea. Arbitrum recorded just 429,000 active addresses on October 6, far below its all-time high of 1.13 million on May 19. It also saw the number of transactions drop 35.7% to 1.7 million, compared to the all-time high of 2.65 million on June 25.
Ethereum vs Layer Networks transactions. (Source: L2Beats)
Linea fared no better, with its number of users dropping 87% from its peak of 765,777 on July 21 to less than 100,000 on October 6. The network, which was managing 55.7 TPS on March 31, is now down 95% to just 2.58 TPS. The drop in Linea activity is largely due to the end of the point farming period, which required users to participate in various on-chain activities to collect points that determine their token distribution in an airdrop.
Although the network has not yet started its airdrop, the end of farming operations means that users no longer have the incentives to use the network as before. Meanwhile, other networks also saw activity decline, with Xai throughput falling more than 50% from peak to 66 TPS and PlayBlock TPS down 17% from ATH of 18.1 TPS on September 30.
Basic remains the outlier
Despite the decline in throughput for all Ethereum scaling solutions, Base remains a notable outlier. On October 4, the network recorded an all-time high of over 66 TPS, highlighting its increased transaction volume and speed.
The network alone also accounted for over 17% of all active addresses for all Ethereum L2s based on the last seven days, with an all-time high of nearly 1.52 million addresses versus 8.82 million addresses for all L2 networks. Interestingly, the number of active addresses for L2 has fallen on a seven-day moving average, down from an all-time high of 10 million in early September.
Basic reaches new highs in activity – Growthepie
The recent base growth is a testament to the network’s resilience and performance, allowing it to become the second largest L2 network in terms of total value captured within a year of launch. Not surprisingly, it’s the only top ten L2 network to see its TVL grow over the past seven days, up 1.42% to $7.24 billion, according to L2Beat.
Ethereum L2s are making huge gains
Meanwhile, the drop in Ethereum L2 business has not impacted their profitability. Onchain data from Growthepie shows that most L2s have made on-chain gains over the past six months, with only Polygon zkEVM and Taiko experiencing losses.
The most profitable is still Base, which generated $26.33 million in revenue for the period, with $25.79 million in profit. Other networks, such as Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, Linea, and Scroll, also made $10.35 million, $7.47 million, $3.47 million, and $6.09 million in profits, respectively.
Ethereum L2s Have Wild Profit Margins – Growthepie
While these profits only represent on-chain profits, as Ethereum core developer Daniel Lehrner noted, and don’t include the off-chain costs of operating an L2, such as server costs, salaries and the rest, it remains a significant profit margin for most L2s with Base have a 98% profit margin.