Key Points
Arbitrum’s Growth and Revenue Distribution
Last year, amidst a bear market, layer-2 (L2) blockchains experienced significant growth. Arbitrum (ARB), a key indicator of the industry’s performance, generated over $72 million in revenue. This is nearly four times its previous earnings.
However, Ethereum holders received about $53 million, or 73% of these total earnings. This has led to questions about the benefits provided to native ARB holders. L2 blockchains, like Arbitrum, are built on top of Ethereum and process transactions off the main chain, aiding its scalability.
In the final settlement stage, transactions are grouped and sent to the main chain with security proofs. This process consumes a significant portion of the revenue generated on L2s. Detailed analysis of the data reveals that Ethereum validators consistently received over 70% of the daily transaction fees paid on Arbitrum.
The upcoming Dencun upgrade is anticipated to significantly reduce L1 storage costs. However, the tokenomics leaves little for ARB holders to rejoice. It’s worth noting that ARB does not gain any value from Arbitrum’s on-chain activity and serves solely as a governance token. These factors might discourage ARB ownership in the long run.
At the time of writing, ARB was trading at $1.86, reflecting a 9% increase over the past month. This growth rate is notably lower than that of other L2s like Optimism and Polygon. Despite this, high-net-worth investors have shown a preference for L2 tokens in recent months.
According to Santiment’s data, the number of addresses holding between 1,000–10 million coins has surged since December. On a larger scale, approximately 140,000 new ARB holders were added during this period, signifying considerable market demand.
