The Ethereum layer-2 (L2) scaling ecosystem has achieved a significant milestone, reaching a new all-time high for daily transactions. On August 12, aggregated daily transactions across the L2 network peaked at 12.42 million, according to Growthepie, a block space analytics platform focused on Ethereum’s L2 solutions.
Leon Waidmann, head of research at the Onchain Foundation, highlighted the milestone on X (formerly Twitter) on August 13. He remarked that “scalability is improving rapidly” and that “user activity is at its peak.” The data indicates a remarkable 140% increase in daily transactions since the start of 2024, reflecting the growing adoption and use of Ethereum’s L2 solutions.
The surge in transactions has been notably driven by the Coinbase L2 blockchain, Base. In late July, Base experienced a transaction surge to over 4 million, according to metrics from the Basescan platform. This represents a staggering 700% increase in daily transactions over the past six months, largely fueled by the recent memecoin mania. Token minters have flocked to Base for its lower costs and higher throughput, enabling them to create and manage memecoins more efficiently.
The scaling industry's metrics platform, L2beat, reports that overall throughput across Ethereum’s L2 solutions has also seen a substantial increase, with average transactions per second (TPS) doubling in the past two months. The expansion of scaling platforms has played a crucial role in this growth.
Additionally, Growthepie noted that layer-2 networks now hold more stablecoins than Solana and Binance Chain combined. L2 networks currently have 150% more stablecoins than Solana and 94% more than Binance’s BNB Smart Chain, underscoring the growing importance of L2 in the stablecoin market.
Despite the surge in L2 transactions, Ethereum’s layer-1 (L1) daily transactions have remained stable, averaging around 1.1 million transactions for most of the year, as reported by Etherscan. Average gas fees on L1 Ethereum have also dropped to yearly lows, contributing to cost efficiency. This reduction in gas fees allowed Tether (USDT) to mint $1 billion worth of USDT for just 53 cents on August 13, according to blockchain intelligence platform Arkham.
The Ethereum L2 scaling ecosystem’s record-breaking transaction levels signify a major advancement in blockchain scalability and user engagement. As layer-2 solutions continue to expand and attract significant user activity, they are set to play an increasingly pivotal role in the Ethereum network’s evolution and overall blockchain landscape.
August 2024, Cryptoniteuae