Optimism and Arbitrum Battle It out for Layer 2 Supremacy

The Layer 2 landscape is shifting with Optimism now surpassing the dominant player Arbitrum for daily transactions. However, Arbitrum still remains on top for the total value locked on the network. 

On July 27, on-chain metrics provider Artemis revealed that Optimism has surpassed Arbitrum in terms of daily transactions.

Layer 2 Landscape Outlook 

The transaction flippening is the first time this has occurred since January 2023. This could be the start of a new trend, Artemis postulated. 

According to the Optimism tracker, the network had 944,668 transactions on July 27. Comparatively, the Arbitrum explorer reported 658,103 transactions for the same date so the difference is quite notable.

Furthermore, activity on Optimism has ticked up over the past week. The transactions per second (TPS) count has increased 78% over the previous week to 10.93, according to L2beat.

Optimism’s total value locked (TVL) is also at an all-time high of $2.8 billion having increased by 30% over the past month. This gives it a 27.3% market share of the overall Layer 2 ecosystem.

The market leader is Arbitrum One with a TVL of $5.9 billion and a commanding market share of 57.8%. However, Arbitrum TVL has actually declined marginally over the past two weeks. 

The two Layer 2 networks together account for 85% of the total activity in the L2 ecosystem. TVL for all networks combined is $10.3 billion having increased by 150% since the beginning of 2023. 

Commenting on L2 on July 27, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said: “The next step for crypto is to make payments instant and free globally.”

“This will take lots of work from all of us, Coinbase included, getting Layer 2s integrated, better on-ramps, simpler UX/onboarding, etc.”

OP and ARB Price Outlook

Optimism’s native token, OP, has taken a 3.8% hit on the day in a fall to $1.47. Nevertheless, the Layer 2 token has gained 15% over the past month. OP has a market cap of just under $1 billion and remains 54% down from its February all-time high of $3.22.

Arbitrum’s ARB token is also down 3.2% to trade at $1.16 at the time of writing. ARB has lost 8% over the past seven days in alignment with the broader crypto market correction. ARB has a $1.5 billion market cap and is 86% away from its peak price of $8.67 in March.