L2s see transaction surge

Ethereum’s layer-2 networks handled roughly 15 million daily transactions in the past day, a fresh sign that activity has shifted back to the chains built to make Ethereum cheaper. (l2beat.com) Layer 2s are separate networks that batch transactions and settle them back to Ethereum, which lets users trade, send tokens, and use apps without paying mainnet prices. L2BEAT tracks 24 rollups and 5 validiums or optimiums in its scaling dashboard, while growthepie tracks usage across Ethereum mainnet and layer 2s. (l2beat.com) (growthepie.com) The capital parked on those networks is also large. L2BEAT’s total value secured page shows the category around $120 billion, with Arbitrum One alone at about $15.9 billion and Base, OP Mainnet, Starknet, Linea, and ZKsync among the biggest networks by assets bridged or held. (l2beat.com 1) (l2beat.com 2) Costs have fallen at the same time usage has climbed. Ethereum’s December 3, 2025 Fusaka upgrade expanded the system that layer 2s use to post compressed data to Ethereum, and ethereum.org says that design was meant to support more scale with smaller fees for layer 2s. (ethereum.org) That matters because layer 2s pay Ethereum to publish their transaction data, and that bill is one of the main costs behind every swap, mint, or transfer on those networks. L2BEAT’s costs dashboard breaks those expenses into blobs, calldata, compute, and overhead, showing how much each network pays to keep transactions anchored to Ethereum. (l2beat.com) The latest jump also lands after a year in which activity became concentrated in a few chains instead of spreading evenly across dozens of launches. The Block wrote in December that Base had emerged as the leader across users, transactions, and activity in 2025, while many newer layer 2s lost momentum after incentive programs faded. (theblock.co) Arbitrum still remains one of the largest networks by secured value and usage. L2BEAT lists Arbitrum One at about 1.46 million past-day operations, 16.91 user operations per second, and roughly $432,870 in total onchain costs over the past year for the tracked period on its project page. (l2beat.com) The open question is whether this burst reflects durable demand from payments, trading, and consumer apps, or another short-lived spike tied to a handful of chains and campaigns. For now, the data shows the core pitch of layer 2s — more transactions at lower cost — is being tested at scale again. (l2beat.com 1) (l2beat.com 2)