The Ethereum L2 ecosystem records 12.4 million transactions in 24 hours

The Ethereum layer 2 scaling solutions ecosystem has achieved an all-time-high transaction count of more than 12 million transactions in less than 24 hours. The aggregated daily transaction count surge is primarily credited to the growing memecoin activity on Coinbase’s layer 2 scaling solution, Base.

Ethereum’s layer 2 solutions have unlocked an all-time high transaction count in a single day. Data from Growthepie, an Ethereum layer 2 analytics firm, dictates that the ecosystem recorded 12.42 million transactions on August 12th. 

According to Growthepie, Base recorded more than 3.6 million transactions on August 13th, while Arbitrum One trailed with 1.8 million transactions.

Base leads L2 scaling solutions in transaction count

???? #Ethereum Layer 2s have set a new record with 12.42M daily transactions.

Scalability is improving rapidly.

User activity is at its peak.#ETH’s growth potential is stronger than ever. pic.twitter.com/HLaqv5a04q

— Leon Waidmann | Onchain Insights???? (@LeonWaidmann) August 13, 2024

Base recorded an approximate 2% increase in transaction count from August 12th to August 13th. However, Arbitrum recorded a steep 13.8% decline in transaction count in the same duration. Base is Coinbase’s layer 2 scaling solution.

Head of Research at OnchainHQ, Leon Waidmann, acknowledged the rapid growth of Ethereum’s layer 2 ecosystem, stating that the growth signified that scalability on the mainnet was considerably improving and that user activity was peaking.

Base has recorded significant growth since its launch less than a year ago. The layer 2 scaling platform has consistently outperformed Arbitrum since early July. On July 27th, Base recorded a peak transaction count of close to 4 million transactions.

Current data from the Ethereum blockchain layer 2 explorer L2Beat reveals that Arbitrum and Base are the leading layer 2 scaling solutions on the Ethereum mainnet using the total value locked (TVL) parameter. Arbitrum tops with a TVL of $15.3 billion, while Base trails Arbitrum with a TVL of $6.38 billion.

Growthepie also noted that the layer 2 ecosystem has witnessed a 140% increase in daily transactions since the beginning of the year. It is important to note that the data from Growthepie represents transactions executed by smart contracts and users. The count does not include system transactions.

The Ethereum L2 ecosystem holds more stablecoins than Solana and BSC combined

The L2 explorer also reported that the layer 2 ecosystem on Ethereum has more stablecoin holdings than the Solana and Binance Smart Chain networks combined. According to Growthepie, the ecosystem has a stablecoin market cap of $9.7 billion, which is 150% more than Solana and 94% more than Binance Smart Chain.

The growth in transaction count was mainly credited to the high memecoin activity on Base. The platform offered token minters optimum conditions, such as lower minting costs and higher throughput chains to mint memecoins.

The rise in popularity of layer 2 solutions on Ethereum has drastically affected layer 1 gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet. Layer 1 transactions on the network have remained fairly stable for the better part of the year, at about 1 million, according to Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan. 

However, gas fees have fallen drastically to four-year lows of single digits. Ethereum users have paid gas fees as low as 1 gwei in the past few days, or $0.007. Ethereum gas fees rarely fall below 10 gwei. Experts believe that the low gas fees are a passing cloud and may disappear soon.