Layer 2 Weekly Roundup #96
Welcome to the latest edition of the Layer 2 Weekly Roundup.
Every week, this newsletter covers the latest and most important updates from across Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem.
Catch up on the previous edition HERE
Protocol Updates
@Optimism - The Optimism Collective are shipping Season 8 from August 1st, their biggest upgrade yet that lets the system keep evolving with the Superchain while reducing platform risk for those that rely on them. These updates blend time-tested ideas from political science and corporate governance with three years of practical experimentation - the result is a more resilient Superchain for all.
@StarkWareLtd - S-two is now live and accessible to anyone who needs fast proving. Fully open-source from day 1, S-two beats all major zkVMs by a wide margin on SHA3, Keccak, Fibonacci, and matrix multiplication.
@Scroll_ZKP - Scroll have launched their Audit Marketplace on Areta Market. This platform gives builders a faster, cheaper, and more transparent path to securing audits from top-tier providers.
@StarkWareLtd - Introducing StarkWare’s Delegation Program. This program is designed to support Starknet’s decentralization by empowering validators to help secure the network and earn rewards in the process.
@Starknet - STRK Staking v2 has successfully launched on mainnet. This upgrade improves the economics of STRK staking and brings greater transparency to validator behavior: allowing delegators to evaluate and compare validator liveness and reliability ahead of their future role in Starknet consensus.
@Optimism - Optimism is extending its $2 million bug bounty to identify bugs in upcoming Superchain protocol upgrades. This bounty helps secure the foundation for Superchain interoperability, a major upcoming milestone for Ethereum L2s — join the effort today.
@arbitrum - ArbOS 40 “Callisto” is now live on Arbitrum One and Nova. This upgrade brings new capabilities from Ethereum’s Pectra hardfork, enabling builders to now access one-click swaps, gas sponsorships, and more.
Ecosystem Highlights
@jpmorgan - Kinexys by J.P. Morgan is launching JPMD, a USD deposit token for institutional clients, on Base. It will be the first token of its kind on a public blockchain, enabling fast, secure, 24/7 money movement between trusted parties.
@Arenaweb3 - ArenaVS’ full intra stack — including launchpad, marketplace, and wallet — is now live on Base. Creators can now launch & trade premium digital assets and AI agents seamlessly on one of the fastest-growing L2s.
@Earned_Network - Earned Network is live on Polygon, bringing AI-driven DeFi infrastructure to builders, exchanges, DAOs, games, and wallets through a single streamlined API.
@nashpointfi - Nashpoint is now live on Arbitrum, integrating tokenized assets via
@shefiorg - Shefi announced Base as their latest S14 partner. SheFi members will be immersed in Coinbase Wallet's new onchain social experience and learn how to leverage the Base ecosystem to earn from their creations.
@fslweb3 - FSL Ecosystem are bringing liquidity support and smoother on-chain operations for GGUSD, enhancing usability across the entire FSL ecosystem, in collaboration with Polygon.
@superfluid_labs - SuperBoring is now live on Arbitrum One. Stream your swaps automate your DCA, and set up a DCA into any token pair by the second.
@zkp2p - ZKP2P’s Scroll support means you can now onramp directly through the apps you already use - Revolut, Venmo, Cash App, Wise, and more.
@Snag_Solutions - Snag announced their partnership with ZKsync to support the success of the Elastic Network ecosystem. Snag is creating a better path for projects to grow highly engaged communities and launch valuable tokens.
@kasarLabs - Cairo Coder v0.1.0 is live, enabling you to generate any Cairo Program or Smart Contract compatible with all your favourite toolings including Starknet Foundry, and Scarb.
@ziskvm - Introducing ZisK — a new era for zero-knowledge proof systems, born at Polygon, and designed for low latency proving from the first day.
@aidappcom - AIDA just deployed on Arbitrum. The smartest onchain terminal just got faster, cheaper, and way more powerful — thanks to Arbitrum’s low fee, high speed L2.
@GenLayer - Testnet Asimov is live. With Testnet Asimov, GenLayer debuts a programmable, onchain legal system for AI agents and humans.
Articles and Threads
@StarkWareLtd - Learn how Giza is leveraging StarkWare’s S-two to make every onchain AI action provable.
Media - Spaces and Podcasts
@coinbase - Coinbase were joined by @jessepollak, @WilsonCusack, @mcfazeli, and @amishrarohit to discuss making crypto payments work for commerce.
@Scroll_ZKP - @Iv4n_Ko from Resolv Labs joins @razacodes to explain why crypto needs better risk assessment and how two-token models solve the scalability problem.
Events
@StarkWareLtd - StarkWare are hosting an open competition to find mobile-first teams to build a gamified perps trading app using the Extended app.
@StarkWareLtd - The StarkWare 100-Hour Vibathon is coming, with $4.2k up for grabs. Four days to vibecode real apps for real users, with any AI tools you want.
@arbitrum - Take part in Arbitrum’s hackathon with Bitso, where they’re giving out over $40k USD in prizes, and help build the future of payments and DeFi in LATAM using MXNB.
Metrics and Stats
Sum of all value locked in the L2 ecosystem
User operations of Rollups on Ethereum, including regular transactions and actions bundled into a single transaction.
Number of unique addresses interacting with one or multiple Layer 2s weekly.
The number of daily transactions executed by users/smart contracts.
How much does it cost to transact on Layer 2?
This newsletter is for educational purposes only, and should never in any way be considered as financial or investment advice.
Thanks for reading!