Ethereum L2 Ecosystem Throughput Set to Outpace Solana by 100x in 5 Years: Analyst

The layer-2 ecosystem remains robust with protocols and EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) scaling platforms growing rapidly and becoming ubiquitous, contrary to some bearish claims, said Ethereum community member Ryan Berckmans in a post on X on June 26.

His comments came in response to a post from Movement Labs founder Rushi Manche, who said, “EVM L2s will go to zero. they mostly all suck compared to SOL.”

Berckmans retorted, stating that the L2 ecosystem is still “growing like crazy,” citing ecosystem analytics platforms such as L2beat before adding, “Coinbase made an EVM L2. So did Worldcoin. So did Immutable X.”

Layer-2 Growth Impressive

Additionally, layer-2s are seen as an integral part of Ethereum, not just a scaling solution, he said before arguing that L2s on the second-largest blockchain offer better value than alternative layer-1 networks due to Ethereum’s “credible neutrality” as a base layer.

Moreover, Ethereum’s ecosystem is larger and more diverse than competitors in terms of liquidity, mature protocols, and total value locked, countering Manche’s arguments claiming Solana is superior.

L2s and EVM are killing it
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For the most part, people betting against L2s and EVM are going to lose hard.
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I thought the EVM L2 bear post below was particularly wrong and wanted to reply to it in detail.
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TL;DR ignore the FUD, L2s and EVM are growing to global ubiquity.…

— Ryan Berckmans ryanb.eth (@ryanberckmans) June 26, 2024

Berckmans predicted that L2s will significantly surpass Solana’s transaction throughput in the coming years.

“Regardless of any one L2, the L2 ecosystem’s overall total tps will soon far, far surpass Solana’s tps. In five years, by like 100x.”

He also argued that Ethereum’s later-2 ecosystem is seen as more attractive for corporations and governments due to its security and decentralization properties. He described a “settlement network effect” for Ethereum, where the growing ecosystem of layer-2 protocols increases the benefits and reduces the costs of settling on Ethereum.

Berckmans concluded that Manche’s comments make it sound like EVM L2s are dead and L2s aren’t that great a deal, adding, “But neither of those things is true.”

“What we’re actually seeing is that Ethereum’s L2 model is killing it, and EVM is leading the pack by far.”

L2 Ecosystem Outlook

The total value locked across all L2 protocols is currently $42.86 billion, according to L2beat. Moreover. This TVL has remained steady since March despite crypto markets declining by 18% over the same period. Since the same time last year, L2 TVL has increased by around 280%.

Arbitrum One leads the L2 pack with a TVL of $17 billion and a market share of almost 40%. Coinbase Base is in the second spot with $7.3 billion TVL and 17% share and OP Mainnet is third with $6.4 billion and 15%.

L2beat lists 58 protocols, which is a testament to ecosystem growth compared to the handful that were listed a year or so ago.