Layer2 networks inherited security from Ethereum and are designed to reduce the cost of transactions. Arbitrum and Optimism are the optimistic rollups that are the most popular today. Both Ethereum Layer2 scaling protocols, with market shares of 50% and 30% respectively, have been showing solid transaction growth since early 2022.
There is only one key difference between these protocols - Arbitrum does not have a governance token. Optimism officially announced the launch of its OP token at the end of April and released it the following month. The number of Optimism transactions began to rise in anticipation of the announcement of the governance token. The protocol then experienced a surge when the token was officially launched on exchanges on May 31st. This sparked interest and speculation about the potential launch of the Arbitrum token. Since then, both platforms have seen a steady increase in transactions and have continued their upward trajectory.
Arbitrum currently has the highest total value locked (TVL) of all Tier 2 networks, with a market share of approximately 50%. According to L2Beat, Optimism holds about 30% of the market. In contrast to these protocols, the next closest Layer2 in terms of market share is Metis, which accounts for 2.71%. On July 26, Metis announced a 26-week rewards program that resulted in an approximately 60% increase in TVL. However, it has since declined to just above the level it was at before the announcement.
Meanwhile, according to a recent report from financial firm Finder, nearly half of the 55 fintech and crypto experts surveyed believe that Ethereum has been undervalued since the network became a proof-of-stake blockchain last month thanks to the “The Merge” update. While 46% of panellists surveyed said Ether should be priced higher, 23% said the token was overpriced. The panellists stated that ETH is expected to drop to $963 before returning to a high of $1,722 this year, but could close 2022 at around $1,377.
“The overall market pessimism driven by the Fed’s actions and the still-locked ETH rates are the key factors holding back the price,” Anton Altement, chief executive of Osom Finance, said in a report. "The former should disappear by December, the latter by next spring - these two events will open access to the next stages of the rally."
Finder experts are optimistic that the price of Ethereum will reach $5,154 by 2025 and $11,727 by 2030. However, the forecast for the surveyed target group regarding the cost of Ether by the end of the current decade is about 55% lower than a similar forecast from January.
On the other side of the barricades, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has just found a powerful ally in its quest to dominate the cryptocurrency spot markets. Speaking at an event at Georgetown University, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler backed the idea of granting Congress more direct authority over certain tokens to the U.S. commodity regulator he previously chaired. The CFTC itself has pushed for direct management of digital assets that US regulators classify as commodities. They currently consist of bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, although Gensler suggested last month that the latter could be a security.
Accordingly, possible investments in cryptocurrencies that provide a stable income that obviously exceeds inflationary expectations and does not fall under any sanctions, blocking and confiscation and with constant payments of passive income in USDT are becoming more and more reliable. Due to this circumstance, the ASTL project - a simple and elegant solution for potential investors with a fairly high ROI (up to 18%) with payments in stablecoin (USDT) is becoming more and more popular. More information about the proposals of the ASTL investment project can be found on the website https://astl.io.
