L2 chains slowed their economic activity, while Ethereum retained the largest share of app revenues and activity.
Base is setting itself apart as the leader in daily fee production. Only three L2 chains produce meaningful daily fees from app-based economic activity.
Base rose to the top among L2 chains with the biggest daily fees. The chain built the most active app economy, achieving a total of $147K in daily revenues. Chain fees are also close at around $145K per day, reflecting significant on-chain activity. Base hosts close to 550K daily active addresses, mostly for DEX trading and token activities, as well as perpetual futures trading.
Overall, L2 chains have lagged behind their promises of hosting a wide app ecosystem. Most of the existing networks produce less than $5K in daily fees. As a result, Base makes up around 70% of app-based revenue in the EVM-compatible L2 ecosystem.
Based on Cryptorank data, only Base, Arbitrum, and Starknet produce robust daily fees. Arbitrum, formerly the leading L2 network, now has slower activity, producing only $39K in daily fees. Polygon is also one of the active chains in terms of revenues, reflecting the rise of Polymarket.
While L2s were seen as competitors to Ethereum, the L1 network draws in close to $500K in daily fees from its smart contract activity. Base and Arbitrum are within the top 10 of fee-producing chains, while Starknet is ranked 11th. Most of the L2 networks are absent from the top of the fee chart.
L2 share of app revenues is falling
L2 chains produce around 15.9% of the app revenues in the Ethereum ecosystem. Revenues peaked on October 10, then slowed down along with the rest of the market. Both Ethereum and L2 revenues fell together, although the Ethereum ecosystem had one of its best years in terms of app activity and adoption.
Base remains the leader in most categories, especially finance. Base carries over 2B smart contracts for decentralized finance, with around 589K for Arbitrum. Base is the leader in token transfers and general utility, and only lags behind Taiko for on-chain social media apps.
Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova, however, register a higher number of financial transactions on their DeFi apps. Ethereum remains the leader, handling DeFi traffic directly.
The latest balance between L2 and L1 shows that the side chains did not take the liquidity off Ethereum. L2s are enjoying historically low fees for posting on the L1 chain, but they are not stealing traffic from Ethereum apps.
L2 chain creation slows down
In total, around 150 L2 chains are fighting for attention. At one point during the crypto cycle, multiple projects launched an L2 chain due to the ease of use.
Of those chains, some are still considered mostly centralized. Around 99 of the remaining networks are considered live, with several closing each month due to a lack of demand. The L2 ecosystem evolved in the past year, with apps concentrating on a handful of task-specific networks, leaving the rest with almost zero liquidity and no users. Even previously busy chains were abandoned after the end of airdrop farming seasons.
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