Optimism (OP) Surprisingly Flips Arbitrum (ARB) in Daily Transactions, But There Is Caveat

The release of Sam Altman's controversial Worldcoin (WDC) project on Optimism (OP) sent some of its metrics through the roof. Will this boost be powerful enough to dethrone Arbitrum (ARB) from its #1 position in Ethereum's L2s segment? Data analysis sends mixed signals to market participants.

Optimism (OP) exceeds Arbitrum (ARB) in daily transactions, having 2x lower TVL

In the last week, Optimism (OP), a second-layer solution for Ethereum (ETH), exceeded its rival Arbitrum (ARB) in the daily transactions volume for the first time in its history. Also, it reached an all-time-high in this metric, as displayed by Thor Hartvigsen, seasoned DeFi researcher. He shared a comprehensive comparison of the two networks with the 61,400 followers of his Twitter account.

🔵Arbitrum VS Optimism🔴

Recently, Optimism flipped Arbitrum in daily transactions and is on the same path when regarding active adresses.

TVL is still 2x as high on Arbitrum however.

More interestingly, DEX volumes is 6-8x as high on Arbitrum on any given day🤔

This could… pic.twitter.com/mNdU2Fqvwb

— Thor⚡️Hartvigsen (@ThorHartvigsen) July 29, 2023

Also, the net number of daily active addresses demonstrates a similar pattern: Optimism (OP) is very close to surpassing Arbitrum (ARB) in this crucial indicator. Arbitrum (ARB) has been over Optimism (OP) in the daily active addresses count for over eight months in a row.

At the same time, this "rally" might be on borrowed time. The USD-denominated total value locked (TVL) on Arbitrum (ARB) is still over double that of Optimism (OP). While Arbitrum One is responsible for almost 58% of Ethereum's L2s segment, Optimism's (OP) share is sitting at 27.5%.

Also, Hartvigsen stresses the striking imbalance in the activity of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEXes) on the competing blockchains:

More interestingly, DEX volumes is 6-8x as high on Arbitrum on any given day. This could indicate that DeFi is still being used significantly more on Arbitrum than on Optimism

It is highly likely that the spike in Optimism (OP) transactions and its accounts' activity should be attributed to the hype around Worldcoin (WDC), a controversial eye-scanning product by the OpenAI founder Sam Altman.

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Worldcoin (WDC), the eponymous native cryptocurrency of the product, utilizes Optimism (OP) as its first blockchain.

L2 community at crossroads

At the same time, some enthusiasts are sure that Optimism (OP) deserves the supremacy over Arbitrum (ARB) thanks to its recent major upgrade Bedrock. As covered by U.Today previously, Optimism (OP) had its fees reduced by 50%, while its developer experience became more newbie-friendly with Bedrock.

Other commentators claim that they cannot recall any prominent DeFi on Optimism (OP) besides Velodrome and Synthetix. Also, Arbitrum's ARB airdrop was much more generous than that of Optimism (OP).

In total, Arbitrum's bridges registered $4.5 billion in value moved from Ethereum (ETH), while Optimism's ones only moved $2.1 billion, data says.