Messari report alleges Optimism growth is inorganic

Blockchain analytics firm Messari released a report alleging that the growth of Ethereum Layer2 network Optimism (OP) is inorganic,

There is evidence that @OptimismFND‘s growth is inorganic.

Optimism’s transacting addresses grew sharply from ecosystem incentives but fell off in recent weeks. @Arbitrum has managed consistent active user metrics without offering any incentives for network usage. pic.twitter.com/Rfilc3FPhr

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) August 29, 2022

According to the blockchain analytics firm, evidence suggests that Optimism’s transacting address rise was fueled by incentives in its ecosystem as the number of these addresses has fallen massively in recent weeks.

On the other hand, Arbitrum, a rival l2 network, has shown consistent user metrics growth despite not offering any incentives for using its network.

Data shared by Nansen analyst Sandra Leow confirmed that Arbitrum’s unique addresses beat Optimism’s within the last 30 days.

Interesting to watch Arbitrum’s unique active addresses continue to grow.

While Optimism is still leading by the overall no. of txns, Arbitrum dominates in terms of unique active addresses.

Source: @nansen_ai query pic.twitter.com/T5LSgkIlC4

— sandra leow (@sandraaleow) August 30, 2022

According to Leow, Optimism still has the highest overall number of transactions.

Insights into Optimism’s and Arbitrum’s unique addresses

Unique daily addresses on Optimism peaked at 456,227 on April 27, when the Layer2 network launched its native OP token.

In the last seven days, unique daily addresses on Optimism ranged between 1000 to 2000.

On the other hand, Arbitrum saw the largest daily increase in unique addresses in late June 2022, with 55,993 addresses.

Arbitrum has averaged over 2000 unique daily addresses in the last seven days. The Layer2 saw 5276 new addresses interact with its network on August 27.

Optimism Vs. Arbitrum

According to data on DeFiLlama, the total value of assets locked (TVL) on Optimism currently stands at $915.7 million, while that of Arbitrum is $948.66 million.

According to Messari data, OP rewards for Aave users helped double Optimism’s TVL to close the gap with Arbitrum.

A look at the cost of transactions on both networks showed that it is cheaper to transact on Optimism versus Arbitrum. According to L2beats, an average transaction on Optimism costs $0.06, while on Arbitrum the average cost is $0.11

Optimism’s total revenue in the last 30 days has dropped 4.64% to $585,000, while that of Arbitrum fell 4.84% to $681,000.

Arbitrum planning upgrade for August 31

Arbitrum is set to undergo its “Nitro” upgrade on August 31.

According to available information, the upgrade is designed to increase its throughput and reduce transaction fees while improving cross-chain communication between the l2 and Ethereum.

According to the team, there would be a planned downtime lasting up to 4 hours, starting at 10:30 AM Eastern Time.

Reminder — Arbitrum One is upgrading to Nitro on Wednesday 8/31. 🚀

There will be 2-4 hours of planned network downtime, starting 10:30 AM ET / GMT-4. 📅

2️⃣ days until Nitro! 🥳

— Arbitrum (@arbitrum) August 29, 2022

Community players said the Nitro upgrade is one of the biggest crypto catalysts in 2022.

2022’s biggest crypto catalysts are mere days away:

1) The @Ethereum Merge: Sept. 15 (21 days away)
2) @Arbitrum Nitro: August 31 (7)

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— DeFi Surfer 🫐,💎 (@DeFiSurfer808) August 25, 2022