According to data from the blockchain analytics platform L2Beat, Ethereum’s layer-2 network reached a new milestone on November 10th, with a total locked value (TVL) of $13 billion in their contracts. Industry experts believe that the growing interest in layer-2 solutions may continue, despite some challenges, especially in user experience and security.
L2Beat reports that there are 32 different networks that qualify as Ethereum layer-2, including Arbitrum One, Optimism, Base, Polygon zkEVM, Metis, and others. Before June 15th, all of these networks collectively had less than $10 billion in cryptocurrency locked in their contracts, and their combined TVL had decreased since reaching a peak of $11.8 billion in April.
However, starting from June 15th, the TVL growth of layer-2 solutions turned positive. By October 31st, these networks had reached a new high with a total TVL of nearly $12 billion. Since then, investment in layer-2 applications has continued to increase, surpassing the $13 billion TVL mark on November 10th and reaching nearly $13.5 billion at the time of this announcement.
This TVL growth is even more impressive when compared to the existing ratio in the 2021 bull market when the total cryptocurrency market cap was much higher than it is now. On November 12th, 2021, when the market cap of all cryptocurrencies reached an all-time high of $2.82 trillion, layer-2 had less than $6 billion locked in their contracts. Today, with a more modest total cryptocurrency market cap of $1.4 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap, the TVL of layer-2 solutions is higher than ever before.