The blockchain space is continuously evolving, and new upgrades to the ecosystem are very common. Layer 2 technologies are one such innovation. Essentially, Layer 2 is just a secondary framework or blockchain project that is constructed and established over an already active and working blockchain network. Through this approach, Layer 2 protocol help in combating the problems that arise when it comes to the traditional network, for example, slow speed of transactions and complication in scaling the ecosystem.  

Recently the popularity and hype around Layer 2 innovations have increased significantly and more and more users are adapting to these protocols, however when we choose from the several Layer 2 option available for us, we need to keep in mind important factors that can help us decide the strength of the platform. In the article, we will talk in-depth about 10 such top Upcoming Layer 2 projects that you need to watch out for in 2023.

Also Read: Best P2P Bitcoin Exchanges in 2023: Buy Crypto with Fiat (without KYC)

Top 10 Layer 2 Protocols

Since layer 2 s growing in potential, there are a lot of new projects in the market. Some have been well established protocols while some are upcoming and rising projects. Many of these platforms can also host airdrops that you must also read about. Our list of the top 10 layer 2 blockchain protocols are:

  • Polygon
  • Arbitrum
  • Optimism
  • zkSync Era
  • Gnosis
  • Mantle Network
  • Scroll
  • Linea
  • Loopring
  • Immutable

Polygon

The Matic Network was founded in 2017, by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwa, Anurag Arjun, and Mihailo Bjelic; and was later rebranded as  Polygon Technology in 2021. Polygon is a very popular and successful scaling solution that focuses on the Ethereum network. They claim to be “The most adopted scaling technology” and are also aiming at being carbon neutral. They aim at creating and producing open-source protocols which will enable users with the ability to develop anytime and anywhere. They have very strong community values and make it a point to ensure that their community of developers, partners, and users are strengthened. Polygon has received backing from the most well-known names in the industry including, Binance, Coinbase, Mark Cuban Companies, and Sequoia. Polygon has more than 28 thousand Contract creators, 2.44 billion Transactions  12.80 billion NFT Sales Volume and 1.17 million deployed smart contracts  

Key metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Polygon’s Total value locked (TVL): 1.08 billion dollars
  2. The 30 day Fees: 3.55 and the Annualized Fees: 43.15 million dollars. 
  3. Daily active users: 387.32 thousand and the 30 day average of Daily active developers: 44.47.
  4. MATIC token Price: 1.091 dollars and MATIC token Circulating market cap: 10.05 billion dollars. 
  5. 30 day revenue: 1.94 million dollars and the annualized revenue: 23.55 million dollars. The Revenue generated is the share of trading fees that are burned. 

Also Read: Polygon (MATIC) Price Prediction: 2023, 2024, 2025 to 2030: Can MATIC reach 500INR?

Arbitrum

The Arbitrum ecosystem has been developed by the group Offchain Labs. The platform has identified the issues and restrictions of traditional smart contracts on Ethereum and is trying ting to fix these problems. They have been tackling the subpar efficiency and exorbitant execution cost that these contracts come with and are working towards giving users a more efficient and seamless experience. Arbtrum was founded by a group of three people, Ed Felten, Steven Goldfeder, and Harry Kalodner. They use a roll-up blocks mechanism to deliver the users what they promise. This unique method makes sure that Arbitrum remains a secure and fair platform and users can put all their trust into the protocol. 

Key metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total value locked (TVL): 2.2 billion dollars
  2. 30 day Fees: 7.16 million dollars and the annualized Fees: 87.06 million dollars.
  3. Daily active users (30 day average): 193.46 thousand and Daily active developers (30 day average): 27.9.
  4. ARB token Price: 1.18 dollars and ARB token Circulating market cap: 1.49 billion dollars. 
  5. 30 day revenue: 3.2 million dollars and the annualized revenue: 38.92 million dollars.

Lean more about: Arbitrum ($ARB) Price Prediction 2023, 2024, 2025, 2030: What will be the listing price of Arbitrum token?

Optimism

Optimism is a powerful Layer 2 blockchain, that has been developed by Ethereum developers to help scale the network in an efficient manner. Optimism seamlessly integrated as an add on to the traditional Ethereum technology which makes it a really popular scaling solution. The platform has come up with an infrastructure that is equivalent to that of the Ethereum Virtual machine (EVM), which makes the interaction very easy for users. Optimism is a low cost platform but despite that provides users with a lightning-fast processing speed. 

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total value locked (TVL): 912.63 million dollars
  2. 30 day Fees: 2.66 million dollars and the annualized Fees: 32.33 million dollars
  3. Daily active users (30 day average): 55.03 thousand and active developers(30 day average): 0.87
  4. OP token Price: 2.25 dollars and OP token Circulating market cap: 709.29 million dollars. 
  5. 30 day revenue: 592.55 thousand dollars and the annualized revenue: 7.21 million dollars.

Read more on: Optimism (OP) Price Prediction 2023, 2024, 2025 till 2030: Can OP touch 10USD?

zkSync Era 

zkSync is another layer 2 project built on Ethereum, however, it uses a unique zero knowledge rollup mechanism to lend scalability to the network. The platform is aiming towards amplifying the throughput of Ethereum and also upholding the principle values of freedom, self-sovereignty, and decentralization while scaling the network. The project is backed by some of the most renowned names in the industry including, Blockchain Capital, Dragonfly, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Ethereum Foundation, Lightspeed, Bybit, Long Hash Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, and many more.  zkSync works on a hyper scalability model which helps it process a large number of transactions without ever compromising on either the safety of the platform or its cost effectiveness. More than 2 hundred popular projects like Chainlink, SushiSwap, Uniswap, Aave, Argent, 1inch, Gnosis, and Curve have registered their interest to deploy on zkSync Era.

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total value locked (TVL): 113.02 million dollars
  2. Transactions on its testnet: 8.8 million
  3. Amount spent on audits & bounties: 3.8 million dollars
  4. Daily transactions per second (TPS): 2000
  5. 30 Day tx Count: 6.94 million

Also Check out: Ultimate ZkSync Airdrop Guide: How to get $ZKS Airdrop?

Gnosis

Gnosis is a layer 2 chain that was amongst the very first sidechains on the network. The protocol enables contributors from across all corners of the world to efficiently run a node, Gnosis Chain has more than 1 thousand validators that are contributing to the security of the platform. The validators get a yield of 15.98 per cent and only have to invest around 111.65 dollars as a cost to start. The team has made it a point to not only have a group of validators that is diverse but has also ensured to establish community governance in order to keep the chain credibly neutral without compromising on the cost effective structure of the protocol in comparison to the mainnet. Gnosis chain claims to be “EVM-based and secured by at-home stakers around the world. Gnosis has all the tooling you are used to and trustless bridges to mainnet soon.” Additionally, it has around 81 GIPs (Gnosis Improvement Proposal) and approximately 342 thousand GNO for on-chain voting

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total value locked (TVL): 76.96 million dollars
  2. 30 day Fees: 1.69 thousand dollars and the annualized Fees: 20.55 thousand dollars
  3. Daily active users (30 day average): 6.51 thousand and active developers(30 day average): 11.63
  4. OP token Price: 110.73 dollars and OP token Circulating market cap: 286.65 million dollars. 
  5. Uptime: 100 per cent and the block time: 5 seconds

Mantle Network

Mantle is an Ethereum centric layer 2 platform that is built with a modular infrastructure. Mantle was created with the assistance of BitDAO and works towards enhancing the level of safety as well as declining the fees that are levied. Since they use roll up technology, they are able to provide users with a more decentralized ecosystem and supply an amplified throughput even when it comes to heavy-duty applications. Mantel has also gotten rid of the need to have a forking capital as a result of which more validators will be encouraged to join the platform and the marginal costs of funds that are used when issuing any new project are also reduced significantly. 

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total Transaction Count: over 2,800,000
  2. Unique Smart Contracts: more than 33,000 
  3. Unique addresses that have deployed contracts: 22,000 plus
  4. Amount given as bounty rewards: 82.9 thousand dollars
  5. Throughput committed: 1,000 transactions per second

Scroll

Scroll is an innovative technology that uses zkEVM, a Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, to implement a zkRollup solution. Its primary purpose is to provide a scaling solution for Ethereum that maintains native compatibility with existing applications and tools. By utilizing an off-chain transaction handling approach and publishing on-chain proof of correctness, Scroll can greatly minimise the transaction costs and improve throughput. One of the most remarkable features of Scroll is that it enables developers to work with the platform effortlessly. This is because it’s been designed to make developing on it feel like working on the Ethereum network. The development interface is user-friendly, allowing developers to focus on their tasks without worrying about the underlying technology. Scroll platform also claims that it is frequently audited by third-party security experts to ensure that the entire system is secure and transparent. This guarantees that the platform is highly secure and that users’ assets and data are protected from malicious actors.

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Pre-Alpha Testnet community: 100,000 users
  2. Transactions processed: 15,400,000 
  3. Blocks proved: 1,800,000
  4. Submitted Validity proofs: 641,000 batches
  5. Funding: 80 million dollars from Investors: Polychain, Sequoia Capital, Variant, and many others.

Learn more about: Scroll Airdrop Guide: How to be eligible for $Scroll Airdrop?

Linea

Linea, formerly known as ConsenSys zkEVM, is an advanced ZK Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) that belongs to the Type 2 category and is set to revolutionize the blockchain industry. By duplicating the Ethereum network’s ecosystem and atmosphere through rollup technology, Linea empowers developers to create and deploy smart contracts similarly to the Ethereum mainnet. Linea offers the same user experience and advantages as Ethereum, but with significantly minimised transaction fees. It employs Solidity’s bytecode instead of custom compilers or transpilers which remarkably reduces the risk of malware or hacking.The primary objective of Linea is to provide a high-quality, reliable, and secure zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine that sticks to delivering the best possible levels of quality and reliability. Linea strictly follows the Ethereum Virtual Machine constraints as prescribed in the Ethereum Yellow Paper. As a Type 2 platform, zkEVM endeavors to deliver all the developments suggested by Vitalik, the Ethereum founder.

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total Blocks: 462744
  2. Transactions processed: 4,255,513
  3. Average block time: 12 seconds and Uptime: 99 per cent 
  4. Total wallet adresses: 522,177
  5. Funding: 725 million dollars from Investors: Microsoft, SoftBank, Temasek and others.

Also read: How to use Linea (ConsenSys zkEVM Testnet) and get Possible Airdrop

Loopring

Loopring is a highly innovative and groundbreaking Layer 2 scaling solution that is specifically designed to transform the world of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEXs). Its main goal is to introduce greater efficiency, safety, and scalability to DEX trading, which is rapidly gaining popularity among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Loopring leverages the power and versatility of the Ethereum blockchain, which is renowned for its robustness in the crypto world. One of the key features of Loopring is its use of ZK Proofs, which enable developers to create high-throughput, non-custodial DEXs that can support a wide range of digital assets. By using this technology, Loopring has the potential to revolutionize the DEX market and create a better user experience for traders. Loopring’s unique blend of ZK and DEX trading has the potential to make it a prominent performer in the decentralized exchange market. By creating a platform that is both user-friendly and secure, Loopring is set to attract a broad range of users, including traders and investors who are looking for a better trading experience.

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total value locked (TVL): 118.53 million dollars
  2. Daily transactions per second (TPS): 2000
  3. 30 Day tx Count: 235 thousand
  4. LRC token Price: 0.3523 dollars and LRC token Circulating market cap: 439.94 million dollars. 
  5. settlement cost per trade: 450 to 800 GAS

You can also check out: Best ZK projects to look out for in 2023

ImmutableX

IMMutable X (IMX) has created a unique Layer 2 scaling solution exclusively for Non-Fungible Token (NFT) and trading and minting associated with the virtual asset. This innovative platform guarantees speedy confirmation times and nominal transaction charges. IMX integrates the exceptional ZK-Rollups technology that was produced by the pioneers at Starkware to accomplish scalability without any drawbacks. This technology is what enables the platform to achieve scalability while maintaining the security and immutability of the Ethereum blockchain.

By utilizing ZK-Rollups, IMX ensures that all transactions are processed off-chain, thereby significantly reducing the load on the Ethereum network and minimizing gas fees. Its mission is to back different Layer 2 and Layer 3 ZK-Rollups to cater to a variety of user needs. IMX i known to be a seamless developer platform focussing on web3 games and providing a great deal of flexibility for developers. Many well-known web3 games such as Illuvium, GodsUnchained, and Kongregate have already adopted IMX due to its user-friendly interface and powerful features. The primary objective of IMX is to provide a swift and efficient platform for NFT trading and minting while preserving the key ideals set by the base network. With IMX, traders and developers alike can experience a whole new level of ease and security that was never possible before.

Key Metrics (As of 12th April 2023)

  1. Total value locked (TVL): 137 million dollars
  2. Daily transactions per second (TPS): 9000
  3. 30 Day tx Count: 12.24  Million
  4. IMX token Price: 1.13 dollars and IMX token Circulating market cap: 1.034 billion dollars. 
  5.  Improvement over native limits: 600x