June Layer 2 Landscape Recap

The on-chain activity on layer 2s (L2s) in June was relatively flat as compared to May. Once again, zkSync Era dominated the total gas consumption of L2s at 46.5%. The overall growth of L2s was mixed, with some ecosystems facing severe pullbacks, like DeversiFi, while some others were seeing more activities, such as Metis. The market capitalizations of most L2 tokens also saw slight decreases, with only a handful seeing a relief bounce. 

The most notable on-chain activity in June would be the uptick in Metis’ rollup operators’ profitability in the face of sharp declines in both Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet (previously Optimism). The reason for the latter is very likely due to the Arbitrum airdrop hype fading off. Generally, an airdrop is followed by a short period of frequent on-chain activities due to the price volatility around the token. But once that volatility wanes and on-chain activity falls off, mercenary capital would start leaving the ecosystem, siphoning liquidity and activity to some extent.