Ethereum L2s hit $37.4B TVL as Base, Arbitrum, Optimism lead scaling push

Ethereum's Layer-2 ecosystem reached $37.4 billion in total value locked, confirming that the network's scaling upgrades are shifting activity to L2s while keeping settlement on the mainnet.

Ethereum's weekly transaction count hit 18 million while median fees fell to $0.008, a divergence that shows the scaling roadmap is working.

"The Pectra and Fusaka upgrades expanded blob throughput and data availability, which is exactly what L2s need to scale without congesting L1," Jason Wu, on-chain analyst at Edgen, said.

Total blob fees reached 1.492 million ETH, per Dune Analytics, reflecting adoption of proto-danksharding. L2 TVL now stands at $37.41 billion, nearly half of Ethereum mainnet's total. Base leads with $11.86 billion, followed by Arbitrum One, ZKsync, and OP Mainnet. Base processed 248.3 million transactions in the period, accounting for 29.1 percent of all L2 activity, while Robinhood Chain posted a 30,922 percent monthly surge in transaction count.

The milestone validates Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap, potentially drawing more developers and capital to L2s and pressuring competing L1 chains to justify their valuations. Monthly active users on Ethereum rose 2.9 percent to 8.3 million, signaling the ecosystem is attracting new participants even as activity migrates to L2s.

L2 Transaction Volumes Surge as Costs Collapse

Transaction counts on L2s have spiked since late June. Arbitrum One saw monthly transaction growth of 22.2 percent, while Optimism posted 19.2 percent and Base added 13.4 percent, according to Token Terminal data. Robinhood Chain, the newest entrant, recorded a 30,922 percent monthly increase and now accounts for 13.9 percent of all L2 transactions.

The median transaction fee on Ethereum fell to an all-time low of $0.008, even as weekly transaction counts reached 18 million. That cost collapse is the direct result of proto-danksharding, which uses temporary data blobs to reduce L2 posting costs to Ethereum.

What the $37.4B TVL Milestone Means for the Ecosystem

The $37.41 billion locked across L2s represents nearly half of Ethereum mainnet's total TVL, per L2BEAT data. Base leads at $11.86 billion, up 1.04 percent, followed by Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet. ZKsync was the only top L2 to post a decline.

This concentration of value on L2s strengthens the thesis that Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap is working as designed: execution scales on L2s while security and settlement remain on Ethereum L1. The next test will come with further data availability improvements in upcoming upgrades, which could push L2 TVL past $50 billion by year-end.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.