Ethereum Layer 2 networks have gone through a phase of explosive growth in recent months, a trend that will continue into 2023.
According to recent data, major Layer 2 networks have seen an increase in daily active users, which has translated into increased fees for the respective ecosystems.
According to analytics provider Token Terminal, Polygon leads the pack with 313,457 daily active users as of January 17. Additionally, the metric skyrocketed to over 600,000 daily active users in early January.
It marks a 30% increase in activity since the beginning of October 2022, resulting in nearly $55,000 in daily fees for Polygon.
Optimism has seen even faster growth with a 190% gain in daily active users over the past three months. This resulted in daily network fees of $119,475, a gain of almost 140% since the beginning of the year.
Arbitrum One currently has 41,694 daily active users, an increase of around 40% in the last three months. Daily rates on the net are just over $40,000 according to the data.
⛓️⛓️ Ethereum L2s Status ⛓️⛓️
Daily rates / DAU:@arbitrum: $40.2k / 41.7k@optimismFND: $119.5k / 72.9k@StarkNetEco: $3.0k / 2.7k@0xPolygon: $54.5k / 313.5k pic.twitter.com/eAh1l6YVoS
— Token Terminal (@tokenterminal) January 18, 2023
Meanwhile, data from the L2 ecosystem analytics platform L2beat state that Arbitrum has a 52% market share in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL), which is currently $2.55 billion. You have seen a 9% increase in TVL over the past week.
The second largest L2 network, Optimism has a TVL of $1.46 billion, giving it a 30% market share. Your escrow has increased by 15% in the last seven days.
The two together account for more than 80% of all collateral locked on Layer 2 platforms.
Related: Optimism and Arbitrum turn around Ethereum in combined transaction volume
There has been a nearly 10% increase in TVL for all L2s over the past week, bringing it to $4.89 billion. However, the total figure is still 34% down from its peak level in April 2022.
However, this decline is less than half the retracement DeFi TVL has made since its all-time high. DeFi collateral has decreased by 75% since December 2021, according to DeFillamawhich suggests that there is more demand and momentum for Layer 2 networks at the moment.
