Ethereum Layer-2 Networks Process Record 12.4 Million Daily Transactions

TLDR

Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling ecosystem reached a new daily transaction all-time high of 12.42 million on August 12, 2024.
The Coinbase L2 blockchain Base has been a major driver of this growth, with transactions surging to over 4 million daily in late July.
Base processed more than 3.6 million transactions on August 12, compared to Arbitrum One’s 1.39 million on the same day.
Layer-2 networks now have more stablecoins than Solana and Binance Chain combined.
Base currently has the second highest Total Value Locked (TVL) in the layer-2 space at approximately $6.35 billion.

Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling ecosystem has achieved a big milestone, processing a record 12.42 million transactions in a single day on August 12, 2024.

This new all-time high, reported by block space analytics platform Growthepie, represents a 140% increase in daily transactions since the beginning of the year.

The surge in activity has been largely driven by the Coinbase-developed layer-2 blockchain, Base. In late July, Base saw its daily transactions peak at over 4 million.

On the record-breaking day of August 12, Base processed more than 3.6 million transactions, significantly outpacing other layer-2 networks like Arbitrum One, which handled 1.39 million transactions on the same day.

Base’s growth has been remarkable, with blockchain metrics platform Basescan reporting a 700% increase in daily transactions over the past six months.

🚀 #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

This explosive growth is partly attributed to the popularity of memecoins on the network. Token creators have been drawn to Base and other layer-2 networks due to their lower costs and higher transaction throughput compared to the Ethereum mainnet.

The layer-2 ecosystem’s expansion goes beyond just transaction counts. According to Growthepie, these networks now hold more stablecoins than Solana and Binance Chain combined.

Specifically, layer-2 networks have 150% more stablecoins than Solana and 94% more than BNB Smart Chain.

In terms of total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, Base currently ranks second among layer-2 networks with approximately $6.35 billion.

This places it behind only Arbitrum One, which leads with over $15 billion in TVL. Base’s TVL increased by 3% in the 24 hours leading up to August 13.

📈 Layer 2s have more Stablecoins than SOL and BSC combined!

+150% more than Solana +94% more than Binance Smart Chain Using @DefiLlama data for BSC/SOL

More food for thought – Next post 👇 pic.twitter.com/cAjQRzQgQv

— growthepie.xyz 🥧📏 (@growthepie_eth) August 13, 2024

The growth in layer-2 activity comes as Ethereum’s mainnet sees relatively stable transaction volumes. Daily transactions on the Ethereum base layer have hovered around 1.1 million for most of 2024, according to data from Etherscan.

This increased layer-2 activity has coincided with lower gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing for more efficient operations. For instance, stablecoin issuer Tether was able to mint 1 billion USDT for just 53 cents on August 13.

Looking at longer-term trends, Base has been one of the most active blockchains over the past month. L2Beat data shows that the network facilitated more than 111 million transactions in the last 30 days, second only to Xai, which processed nearly 300 million transactions in the same period.

The meme coin sector on Base has also seen notable activity. As of August 13, the market cap for Base meme coins stood at over $1.2 million, with tokens like Brett (BRETT) and Toshi (TOSHI) showing gains of 3% and 4% respectively over the previous 24 hours.