ARB and OP rise after Vitalik Buterin’s post on L2 networks

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted the rollups development, highlighting the Arbitrum (ARB) network’s transition to ‘the first stage’.

\”Real decentralization. Let’s reach ten first-stage protocols and some decentralization of the sequencer next year,\” the developer said.

The status of rollups is divided into three stages (0 to 2). The first stage denotes the presence of a functional consensus system. At this stage, a security council is required, at least five independent participants who can provide fraud proofs, and unhindered exit for users.

Stage 0 indicates the protocol is incomplete, and Stage 2 reflects its full functioning.

According to L2BEAT, the total value of assets locked in Layer-2 networks stands at $20.15 billion.

As of writing, the largest rollup is Arbitrum One (around $9.6 billion), followed by OP Mainnet ($6.28 billion) and Metis Andromeda ($739 million).

Following Buterin’s tweet, the ARB token rose by nearly 20% over 24 hours—from $1.32 to $1.58.

The market cap of the token exceeded $2 billion with a daily trading volume of $1.5 billion (CoinGecko).

Separately, the native token Optimism (OP) posted positive momentum, gaining 15% over the past day. As of writing, the asset traded at $3.80.

OP’s market capitalization reached $3.4 billion, and its trading volume was $1.1 billion.

The previous day, PancakeSwap’s native token surged 25% after burning 10 million CAKE. On the same day, activity was seen in Polygon (MATIC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

As of December 24, Solana (SOL) rose to $118 for the first time since April 2022. Other on-chain metrics also reached yearly highs.