Which ETH Layer 2 Coins Are Leading the Scalability Race in 2025?

The Ethereum ecosystem has undergone a transformation since the Dencun upgrade rolled out in March 2024, fundamentally reshaping how layer 2 solutions operate. Today, eth layer 2 coins have become essential components of the blockchain infrastructure, addressing what was once Ethereum’s biggest bottleneck: prohibitive gas fees and network congestion.

The Scalability Challenge That Layer-2s Solved

Ethereum’s growth story is impressive on paper. With a TVL exceeding $51.25 billion and commanding over 53% market dominance in DeFi, the network powers a diverse ecosystem. Yet this success created its own problem—transaction congestion and skyrocketing fees made everyday blockchain interactions impractical for average users.

Layer-2 networks emerged as the pragmatic solution. Currently, these second-layer protocols lock in approximately $38.75 billion in total value, with scaling solutions alone representing $15.5 billion in TVL. By processing transactions off the main Ethereum chain, they’ve reduced costs from dollars to fractions of a cent while maintaining the security guarantees of the main network.

Performance Showdown: How Top Projects Stack Up

The diversity of solutions in the eth layer 2 coins space reflects different technical philosophies. Here’s how the leading contenders compare:

Optimism: The Developer’s Choice

Optimism (OP) has positioned itself as particularly attractive to builders. The network currently operates with OP priced at $0.27, up 2.86% in 24 hours, with a flowing market cap of $524.52 million.

The platform stands out through its Optimistic Rollups architecture and the innovative OP Stack framework, which enables interoperability across chains through the Superchain Project. What catches attention is the concrete impact: over $3 billion in accumulated gas savings and 141 million transactions processed. The 2023 launch of Retroactive Public Goods Funding showed a commitment to community-driven development beyond profit extraction.

Arbitrum: The Performance Leader

Arbitrum (ARB) trades at $0.19 with a 2.01% 24-hour gain and a market cap reaching $1.10 billion, making it one of the larger layer-2 tokens by valuation.

The network distinguishes itself through superior developer tooling. The 2023 rollout of Arbitrum Stylus expanded the developer toolkit by supporting Rust, C, and C++ alongside Solidity—a significant advantage for teams wanting to deploy existing codebases. The BOLD protocol introduction enhanced security through improved dispute resolution, while the “time boost” sequencer modification demonstrated practical innovation in transaction ordering.

Base: The Coinbase Advantage

Launched mid-2023, Base leverages Coinbase’s infrastructure and user base while employing a hybrid approach combining Optimistic and zk-Rollups. This dual-technology strategy has proven effective: Base maintains a TVL of $3.08 billion, making it the largest by locked value among these platforms.

Post-Dencun, Base reduced transaction costs to below 1 cent—a milestone facilitated by the upgrade’s data compression improvements. The platform’s developer-friendly documentation and low barriers to deployment attracted diverse projects, from DeFi protocols to speculative assets that benefit from high throughput and minimal transaction fees.

Blast: The New Entrant Making Waves

Launched early 2024 right after Dencun, Blast (BLAST) currently trades at $0.00 with a -2.56% 24-hour change and a market cap of $37.66 million, reflecting its newer status.

What differentiated Blast was the native yield feature—users earned passive returns on staked assets without complex staking mechanics. Combined with early access programs, this attracted significant capital, pushing TVL to $2.68 billion. Despite centralization concerns, the involvement of high-profile community figures lent credibility during its rapid growth phase.

Mantle: The Modular Architecture Play

Mantle (MNT) currently trades at $1.04 with a -1.21% daily change, commanding a $3.39 billion market cap.

Mantle’s distinguishing feature is its modular design that disaggregates execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability across different nodes. By integrating EigenDA for data availability, the network achieved over 80% gas reductions compared to Ethereum and supports 500 transactions per second—significantly outpacing Ethereum’s 32 TPS baseline. The $200 million Mantle Ecosystem Fund and developer-first approach (20+ hackathons during testnet) signaled serious commitment to builder support.

Polygon: The Established Heavyweight

Despite not showing real-time price data in the latest feeds, Polygon (MATIC) remains the category’s most mature player. As of late 2023, the ecosystem encompassed 28,000 contract creators and 2.44 billion total transactions—indicators of entrenched adoption.

The Polygon 2.0 upgrade pivoted toward zero-knowledge layer-2s, repositioning the network as the “Value Layer of the Internet.” Real-world asset tokenization initiatives and Polygon ID’s decentralized identity solution opened institutional-grade use cases beyond speculative trading.

MetisDAO: The DAO-First Approach

Metis Token (METIS) trades at $6.12 with a -1.73% 24-hour decline and a $41.85 million market cap.

MetisDAO emphasizes community governance through its DAO structure, with METIS holders controlling protocol decisions. The 2023 launch of the Metis Foundation, Ecosystem Development Program, and community-minted NFT projects demonstrated commitment to grassroots growth. The integration of Polis middleware aimed to bridge Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 applications, expanding practical utility.

Why These Projects Matter Now

The bull market resurgence in 2024-2025 validated what these projects were building. eth layer 2 coins evolved from theoretical solutions into production-grade infrastructure capturing real transaction volume and developer mindshare.

Each project reflects different technical trade-offs: Optimism prioritizes developer experience, Arbitrum emphasizes performance and tooling, Base leverages institutional backing, Mantle pursues modular architecture, Polygon targets enterprise adoption, and MetisDAO builds community-governed infrastructure.

The Broader Context

Ethereum’s current architecture with layer-2s now processes transactions at scale without sacrificing decentralization. With Dencun’s data availability improvements continuing to ripple through the ecosystem, transaction costs remain compressed even as adoption accelerates. The ~$38.75 billion locked in layer-2 solutions represents genuine economic activity, not speculative hype.

As blockchain applications mature and institutional participation deepens, these scaling solutions have transitioned from “nice to have” to fundamental infrastructure. The diversity of approaches—from rollups to modular designs—ensures healthy competition driving continuous improvement across the sector.