Ethereum Layer 2 Network Optimism Sees Bump in Transactional Activity. Here's Why it Matters

Crypto traders and investors are increasingly seeing the Optimism ecosystem as a likely spot for capturing returns along the lines of the 100-times-plus multiples sometimes witnessed in prior bull-market cycles.

Transactional activity has steadily bumped on the scaling upstart in the past weeks, crossing over rival Arbitrum’s activity, which has fallen nearly 50% since its November peak.

Such activity can serve as a predictive indicator of forthcoming investor interest in any blockchain ecosystem, as it suggests buyers of underlying tokens and users of decentralized applications (dapps) built on that network, in this case, Optimism.

The Ethereum-based scaling product, which allows traders to transact on the blockchain network for under a few cents in fees and transacting times of a few seconds, is among a flurry of blockchain networks that launched in the past year, each promising to be faster and cheaper than the previous one.

But on-chain data shows Optimism is not all hype. Last week the ecosystem logged over 800,000 transactions in a single day, a figure that marked nearly two times the network activity seen in November, and over 10 times since June.

The total value locked (TVL) on Optimism holds just under $600 million, with popular trading protocol Synthetix accounting for 18% of all this TVL. Synthetix allows traders to bet on financial derivatives without relying on third-party trading and clearing systems – giving it a niche user market looking to invest in global assets – such as equities – at low fees.

Several yield platforms on Optimism offer annualized rewards of even 100% on some liquidity pools, data from DeFiLlama shows, which further attracts investor capital.

Optimism’s native OP tokens were down 3.5% in the past 24 hours, retreating after a 40% run in the past week, CoinGecko data shows.