Decoding how Arbitrum [ARB] constantly outshines its peers in the L2 space

Over the past few months, Arbitrum [ARB] has consistently outperformed many other layer 2 solutions in growth.  The network’s dApps have been instrumental in maintaining the improvements.

Axelar, a well-known dApp on Arbitrum, saw a 249.5% increase in gas consumption on its network. Gnosis and Perennial, two other dApps on Arbitrum, also increased activity.

The high demand for Arbitrum dApps greatly aided the spike in network transactions.

Arbitrum had an average of 160,000 active addresses per day in 2023 alone, according to Messari’s data. When compared to the Optimism network, the protocol was able to handle almost twice as many transactions.

Even though both protocols offered users the same utility, there was a significant difference in activity. Both Optimism and Arbitrum charged comparable transaction fees. Comparatively speaking, the user savings on each protocol were not significantly different.

The decreasing excitement for Optimism’s NFTs may contribute to the drop in interest.

The network experienced a spike in activity when Optimism Quests NFT was introduced to encourage new users to adopt the protocol. The network’s activity decreased as the Quest initiative ended, though.

Data from Dune Analytics shows that overall interest in Optimism NFTs has significantly decreased over the last few months. Regarding the DeFi market, both protocols recently showed signs of growth in DEX volumes. However, the TVL on both networks did not match up to the same degree.

Over the past few weeks, Arbitrum’s TVL has increased significantly, while Optimism’s TVL has remained constant. Even though Arbitrum has been leading the L2 market, it’s important to remember that the ARB token launch was largely responsible for the network’s activity.

Arbitrum’s hegemony may eventually be challenged as interest in the token wanes and new rivals like zkSync Era and StarkNet start to gain ground.