l2

According to Cointelegraph, Edward Felten, co-founder of Offchain Labs, stated in his keynote speech at EthCC 2026 that Ethereum's layer two networks need to introduce a "dynamic pricing" mechanism to support billions of users and reduce fee fluctuations during network congestion.Felten pointed out that the current drastic fluctuations in Gas prices remain the main means of resisting network overload, but this volatility poses a significant barrier to mainstream users. He stated that a dynamic pricing mechanism could accommodate more transaction volume at lower Gas prices while avoiding infrastructure overload.In response, developer Julian Kors noted that the main drawback of dynamic pricing is its predictability, which is lower than that of EIP-1559. Cyprien Grau, head of the Status Network project, believes that while this model improves fee accuracy, it still does not address structural issues— as competition for scaling intensifies, layer two network Gas fees trend towards zero in the long term, and dynamic pricing is essentially still an income model built on continuously depreciating assets.

The privacy chain Aztec Network, supported by a16z, officially launched Alpha Network, becoming the first Ethereum Layer 2 with a complete private smart contract execution environment, which was previously approved by a unanimous community governance vote.Aztec integrates privacy at three levels: private data supports confidential transactions and RWA transfers; private identity allows for selective disclosure to meet compliance requirements; private computation hides on-chain behavior, opening up space for privacy DeFi and gaming applications. Contracts are written in the Rust-style language Noir, with privacy logic executed on the user side to generate zero-knowledge proofs, settling on Ethereum approximately every 12 seconds.However, this launch comes with a significant warning, as Aztec disclosed known serious security vulnerabilities, with auditing still ongoing. The team advises users to only deposit funds they can afford to lose.

The Ethereum Foundation today released a systematic explanation regarding the evolution of the roles of L1 and L2. The core point indicates that as the ecosystem matures, the primary goal of L2 has shifted from "scaling Ethereum" to "providing differentiated functions, customized services, and autonomous controllable areas," while scaling has become a secondary focus.The Foundation has redefined the roles of L1 and L2 as follows:· L1: As a permissionless, highly resilient global settlement layer, it undertakes the functions of shared state, liquidity, and DeFi hub, and must continue to scale while maintaining censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security.· L2: While developing its own on-chain economy, it will extend Ethereum's core attributes to a broader user base, forming a "full-spectrum" ecosystem.The Foundation clarifies that L2s with the highest integration with L1 should pursue synchronous composability, complete interoperability, shared liquidity, and Stage 2 mechanisms. A large number of L2s with diverse business models and technical expertise will continue to play an important role, providing functionalities that L1 does not possess.The Ethereum Foundation stated that it will continue to invest in technology to help L2 smoothly extend L1's core attributes and securely access cross-layer liquidity, while emphasizing that L2 must maintain transparency and verifiability of its security attributes.

Ethereum founder Vitalik stated, "I think it's a good thing for the Ethereum community to have a bolder and more open mindset, especially regarding the application layer and how we view our place in the world. We should not compromise on core attributes: censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security (CROPS). Especially at the application layer and in the interface between Ethereum and the outside world, we should be more willing to thoroughly rethink various concepts and step out of our comfort zone.Last year, we began to prioritize privacy and give it equal importance to other types of security. This means that the Ethereum application stack will undergo fundamental changes, as the entire stack has not been built around privacy so far. Great, let's build a completely different Ethereum application stack. An example this year is rethinking the role of L2 from scratch and determining which types of L2 can truly create the greatest synergy and benefits with Ethereum. This also includes cultural factors.For me and others, this is an important part of the "milady" concept. Write down your inherent notions of "decency," crumple them up, and burn them. This mental cleansing will lead to an intellectual cleansing, thereby sparking greater creativity and broadening perspectives. For a long time, our algorithm on Ethereum has been: we have an existing ecosystem, what should we do next to make it better? Now, our algorithm should be: we have a fantastic L1 layer, and it will become even better; we have more and more tools, including those developed inside and outside the ecosystem; based on what we currently know, what is the most valuable?If you were to write the section on applications from the 2014 Ethereum white paper, starting from first principles in areas like DeFi, decentralized social, and identity verification, what would you write? At the very least, please exclude all path dependency issues, assuming the Ethereum chain is currently unused, and you are the first to propose or build the first applications, and see what you would ultimately write. Even if you are currently building existing applications, please do this. This is the secret to revitalizing Ethereum."

According to the official announcement from Coinbase, due to Ronin (RONIN) announcing the migration of its network to a new Ethereum L2, Coinbase will not facilitate this asset migration for its customers.Coinbase will suspend RONIN trading starting at 2 PM ET on March 30, 2026. The current order book has been switched to limit-only mode. Users must transfer RONIN to a compatible self-custody wallet before the project completes the migration; otherwise, assets left on Coinbase will be inaccessible after the migration.

The Ethereum Foundation has announced the establishment of the Platform Team, aimed at building the most powerful Ethereum platform possible, enabling better support for users, applications, and all organizations built on Ethereum at both the L1 and L2 layers.Improving the relationship between L1 and L2 layers to create a mutually reinforcing system across various levels. The Foundation stated that since the introduction of the rollup-centric roadmap five years ago, a chain ecosystem has developed around the Ethereum L1 layer. The early rollup mindset has been replaced by differentiated L2 layer networks, each possessing unique and valuable economic systems, thereby extending Ethereum's core characteristics to millions of users.As Ethereum matures, the Foundation believes that more measures must be taken to build a unified platform that can fully leverage the unique advantages of the Ethereum system (L1 + L2). This includes enhancing the value proposition of L2, optimizing the adoption drivers for L2, enabling it to create value for Ethereum more broadly, guiding the ecosystem towards a more secure, permissionless architecture, and simplifying the process for users and institutions to adopt Ethereum.More importantly, building a strong Ethereum means driving technological improvements to reinforce and enhance Ethereum's core characteristics and unique advantages.

According to tracking data from the Web3 asset data platform RootData X, in the past 7 days, the Ethereum L2 solution Optimism has been the project that X (Twitter) top figures have unfollowed the most. The new influential figures on X who have unfollowed this project include cryptocurrency trader Loomdart (@loomdart), NFT collector Gmoney (@gmoneynft), and 陳威廉 (@williamlab).In addition, the project that X top figures have unfollowed the most also includes OKX Wallet.

According to official news, ENS v2 will be deployed directly on the Ethereum mainnet and will cease the development of its proprietary Layer 2 network Namechain.This decision stems from the Ethereum L1 scaling speed exceeding expectations. After the Fusaka upgrade in 2025, which will raise the Gas limit to 60 million, the Gas cost for ENS registrations has decreased by 99% over the past year, with the average registration fee now below $0.05. Nick.eth stated that although the development of Namechain will stop, the roadmap for ENS v2 remains unchanged, and users will still experience features such as one-step registration, support for cross-chain stablecoin payments, and a completely new registry design.The ENS team believes that staying on L1 can eliminate the additional trust assumptions brought by L2 and leverage Ethereum's strongest infrastructure guarantees. Currently, the brand new ENS App and ENS Explorer have entered public Alpha testing.

The game blockchain Ronin announced that the Saigon testnet has completed its migration to Ethereum, and the mainnet migration to Ethereum L2 is proceeding as planned, expected to be completed between the first and second quarters of 2026.

The Aave governance delegation platform Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) proposed a governance proposal on January 29, suggesting to pause deployments on the three Layer 2 networks of zkSync Era, Metis, and Soneium, citing that these networks contribute very little user activity, TVL, and revenue.ACI pointed out in the proposal, "Over time, it has become clear that only a small number of instances contribute very little user activity, TVL, and revenue, yet service providers and governance participants still need to invest a lot of effort." Currently, zkSync's TVL is approximately $26 million, Soneium around $17 million, and Metis about $9 million.According to DefiLlama data, Aave generated only $714 in revenue on zkSync over the past 30 days, $679 on Metis, and just $150 on Soneium. In contrast, during the same period, it generated over $7.7 million in revenue on the Ethereum mainnet and nearly $300,000 on Base.ACI also proposed that any future new chain deployments must guarantee Aave at least $2 million in annual revenue, arguing that protocol liquidity is often underestimated relative to upfront and ongoing costs. Snapshot voting was launched on the same day.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently stated that the initial idea of using L2 as the main scaling engine for Ethereum is no longer reasonable, and he called for second-layer networks to evolve towards stronger specialization. This statement quickly prompted responses from mainstream L2 teams such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base.Vitalik pointed out that many L2s still rely on multi-signature bridges and have not fully inherited Ethereum's security; at the same time, with the increase in gas limits and the advancement of native Rollup solutions, the throughput capacity of the Ethereum mainnet itself is strengthening. Against this backdrop, the positioning of L2 needs to be rethought.Karl Floersch, co-founder of the Optimism Foundation, stated that he supports building a modular L2 that covers the entire decentralized spectrum, but also admitted that there are still real challenges such as long withdrawal periods, immature Stage 2 proof mechanisms, and insufficient cross-chain tools.Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, the developer of Arbitrum, emphasized that scaling remains the core value of L2. He believes that even if the Ethereum mainnet's capabilities improve, it will be difficult to replace L2's role in handling thousands of TPS during peak times, and warned that if Ethereum is unfriendly to Rollups, institutions may choose independent Layer 1s instead.Jesse Pollak, head of Base, stated that scaling Ethereum L1 is beneficial for the entire ecosystem, while agreeing that L2 cannot just be a cheaper version of Ethereum. He pointed out that Base is forming its own characteristics through application layer differentiation, account abstraction, and privacy features.Additionally, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson hinted on social media that ZK-native L2s (such as Starknet) have, to some extent, aligned with the specialization direction proposed by Vitalik. Overall, L2 builders generally accept the trend of de-homogenization and repositioning, but there are still divergences on whether scaling remains a core mission.

According to Cointelegraph, after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented that "the original vision of Layer 2 as the primary scaling engine is no longer applicable," several L2 builders responded, generally agreeing that Rollup needs to move beyond the positioning of "a cheaper Ethereum," but there are disagreements on whether scaling should still be its core role.Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch welcomed the challenge of building a modular L2 stack that supports "full-spectrum decentralization," while acknowledging that there are still major obstacles such as long withdrawal periods, second-stage proofs not being production-ready, and insufficient cross-chain application tools. He supports the native Rollup precompiled solutions emphasized by Buterin.Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, took a firmer stance, arguing that although the Rollup model has evolved, scaling remains the core value of L2. He pointed out that Arbitrum was not built as "a service of Ethereum," but because Ethereum provides a highly secure and low-cost settlement layer, making large-scale Rollups possible. He warned that if Ethereum is seen as hostile to Rollups, institutions might choose to launch independent Layer 1 chains instead of deploying on Ethereum.Base head Jesse Pollak stated that scaling Ethereum L1 is "a victory for the entire ecosystem," agreeing that L2 cannot just be "a cheaper Ethereum." He mentioned that Base is differentiating itself through applications, account abstraction, and privacy features, and is working towards decentralization in the second stage.StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson hinted that some ZK-native L2s (like Starknet) believe they already fit the specialized role described by Buterin. The entire Ethereum ecosystem is facing a roadmap adjustment: the base layer aims to enhance its capabilities, while L2 is repositioning itself as a dedicated environment serving different technical needs.

According to incomplete statistics from l2beat, there are currently about 135 Ethereum Layer 2 networks in the market, of which 109 Layer 2 networks had a user operations per second (UOPS) of less than 1 in the past day. The UOPS for the Ethereum mainnet in the past day was 29.94, with a peak on January 16, 2026 (33.59). Here are some data from mainstream Layer 2 networks:Base: UOPS in the past day was 144.04, with a peak of 213.14 (November 18, 2025)Polygon: UOPS in the past day was 81.49, with a peak of 190 (November 16, 2023)Arbitrum: UOPS in the past day was 60.13, with a peak of 69.35 (September 25, 2025)OP: UOPS in the past day was 28.71, with a peak of 33.81 (October 10, 2025)Among the 109 Layer 2 networks with a UOPS of less than 1 in the past day, there are well-known users' favorites such as ApeChain (0.73), Linea (0.73), Blast (0.67), Mantle (0.54), Manta (0.52), ZKsync Era (0.46), Metis (0.28), Hemi (0.1), Sophon (0.08), Zora (0.07), ZKFair (0.06), Aevo (0.05), Degen Chain (0.04), Polygon zkEVM (0.04), Redstone (less than 0.01), Loopring (less than 0.01).

Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform, stating that there has been an increasing discussion about the ongoing role of L2 in the Ethereum ecosystem. Due to the slow progress of L2 entering phase 2, and the expansion of L1 itself, it is expected that the Gas limit will significantly increase by 2026. This means that the original vision of L2 as Ethereum's "branded sharding" is no longer applicable, and new paths are needed.Vitalik Buterin pointed out that L1 no longer needs L2 as branded sharding, and that L2 cannot or is unwilling to meet the attributes required for true branded sharding. He suggested that L2 should identify value points beyond "scalability," such as privacy, efficiency for specific applications, extreme levels of scalability, non-financial application design, ultra-low latency, and built-in oracles. When handling ETH or other Ethereum assets, L2 should at least reach phase 1 and support maximum interoperability with Ethereum. Additionally, Vitalik Buterin stated that he has become more convinced of the value of native Rollup precompiles in recent months, especially after having the ZK-EVM proof needed for scaling L1. This precompile would make EVM verification without a security committee feasible. He believes that research should be conducted on how to design this precompile so that it can verify the EVM portion when L2 includes "EVM and other content." This would make achieving secure, robust, and trustless interoperability with Ethereum easier and enable synchronous composability.

According to data from the SolanaFloor platform, in January 2026, the Solana ecosystem's decentralized applications (dApps) generated over $146 million in revenue, ranking first among all Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains.The top three Solana dApps by revenue for that month were: PumpFun: approximately $46 million; Axiom: approximately $15.36 million; Meteora: approximately $13.4 million.