Skeptics of the Rollup-Central Route Card from Ethereum have speculated that Layer-2 networks can ultimately peel away from the ecosystem. The care was that Rollup teams would be tired of paying the availability of Ethereum and breaking sovereign layer-1 chains with their own validators.
But that has not happened so far. Instead, gravity has been streamed in the other side: independent layer-1’s rearranging themselves again as Ethereum L2S.
Celo and Lisk are two prominent examples. Celo launched in 2020 with the aim of building a mobile-first, payments-oriented L1 with its own stablecoins and identity layer. The origin of Lisk goes even further back to 2016, when it was launched with a focus on setting up JavaScript developers via an adapted SDK and Sidechains.
But against the Berenmarkt of 2022-2023 both faced a common challenge that was seen in many mid-tier L1s: limited liquidity, fragmented developer eco-systems and the attracting and retaining of users who go beyond nichege use.
Instead of double independence, both chains chose to connect to Ethereum. Celo completed his migration in March 2025 and repair as a stacking role with its ownenda for data availability.
“It was the right time to return home to Ethereum,” Rene Reinsberg, co-founder of Celo, told Blockworks and quoted new infrastructure such as Rollup-in-a-box stacks. “This enabled CELO to maintain its unique technical benefits, such as 1-block of Finality, Subcento gas costs and ERC-20 tokens such as Gasuurutas … while the security, community and network effects of Ethereum were obtained.”
Celo says that the community supported the shift overwhelming, unanimous voices through Onchain -Governance and proposals that are assessed in public calls and open forums.
“Building in the open was and remains a core priority,” said Reinsberg.
The results are shown in the statistics. According to Celo, the daily active users now have the top 600,000 and Stablecoin transfers have reached more than 123 million on more than 1.1 million portfolios. The chain also reports more than $ 1 billion in monthly Stablecoin volume and an increase of 365% in protocol income since migration. Celos Onchain FX platform, Mento, recently processed more than $ 200 million in one day.
Much of the use is powered by Real-World applications such as Minipay, a mobile wallet integrated with the opera browser.
“Minipay is built for everyday users,” the team said and noted that the recently 8 million activated portfolios surpassed. In the meantime, Defi integrations have been accelerated, where an Aave V3 touches its first supply caps, which encourages governance to increase limits for USDT, ETH and Celo.
Lisk’s Pad followed a similar arch. In May 2024, it migrated his LSK to Ethereum and again launched as a stacking role with Ethereum’s Blobspace for DA. The “DAO season 1” campaign reportedly attracted more than 277,000 new accounts and 48 million transactions. Lisk is now gambling on distribution and Ethereum-Native Interoperability to power the next growth phase.
“The so -called ‘crisis’ in Ethereum was never really real, because Ethereum never just has been another ecosystem,” Dominic Schwenter, Coo van Lisk, told Blockworks.
“Projects are joining the Ethereum Ecosystem to work together, not to compete … It has determined the highest standard for what it means to scale technology at the most decentralized level,” he said.
The contrast with the dreaded L2-to-L1 story is grim, with virtually no examples of successful pivot points. Dydx left Sterkex for a Cosmos Appchain in 2023. Starknet continues to post data to Ethereum, and every large roles launched since 2021 – Arbitrum, Base, on Mainnet, ZKSync, Unichain, Linea – remains anchored to Ethereum.