After the conclusion of its first season’s “quest,” Optimism lost the top rank to Arbitrum in January. However, it has since reclaimed it following the debut of Worldcoin on July 25.
As the Optimism network surges ahead, topping Arbitrum in transaction volume for the first time in six months, as revealed by the blockchain analytics platform Artemis on July 27, exciting changes are taking place in the world of blockchain. The optimistic rollup technology is used by both networks, which are layer 2 Ethereum solutions, to effectively process and package transactions before submitting them to the Ethereum blockchain, potentially lowering transaction fees.
![Optimism Overtakes Arbitrum in Transaction Volumes image 220](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/image-220.png?resize=842%2C576&ssl=1)
![Optimism Overtakes Arbitrum in Transaction Volumes image 220](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/image-220.png?resize=842%2C576&ssl=1)
As season one of its “quest” feature came to a conclusion in January, Optimism originally slipped behind Arbitrum in terms of transaction volume. However, on July 25th, which also happened to be the day that Worldcoin was released, optimism triumphantly returned.
Related: Worldcoin's Migration to Optimism Causes Safe Deployment Confusion
From August through December 2022, both networks experienced comparable transaction volumes, according to Artemis statistics. Optimism overtook Arbitrum in December, only to regress when season one of its “quest” feature came to an end in January. Following the launch of its Arbitrum (ARB) token and an airdrop to users in March, Arbitrum saw a significant rise in transaction volume during the same time frame.
When Optimism unveiled its Bedrock upgrade in June, transaction volume increased by 67%. Despite this impressive increase, it was insufficient at the time to surpass Arbitrum. But from July 23 to July 26, Optimism had a sharp increase in transactions, jumping from 490,500 to 809,070, a phenomenal increase of about 65%, firmly establishing Optimism as the leader in the field. This increase occurred on July 25, the same day that Worldcoin became live on the Optimism network.
![Optimism Overtakes Arbitrum in Transaction Volumes image 221](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/image-221.png?resize=830%2C593&ssl=1)
![Optimism Overtakes Arbitrum in Transaction Volumes image 221](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/image-221.png?resize=830%2C593&ssl=1)
The imminent introduction of Coinbase’s Base network, which developers hope will be connected to Optimism as part of an exciting “Superchain” development, may also be responsible for the current uptick in activity on Optimism.
Despite overtaking Arbitrum in terms of transaction volume, Optimism still behind in terms of total value locked (TVL), or the amount of money invested in its contracts. According to DefiLlama’s data, Arbitrum has a staggering $2 billion TVL while Optimism has a TVL of $923 million.
Related: Optimism set to unlock $587M worth of OP tokens, will investors unload?
In conclusion, the rivalry between Optimism and Arbitrum exemplifies the blockchain industry’s explosive growth and innovation. Both networks are competing for domination and present promising prospects for the development of decentralized finance in the future.