Base and Arbitrum are dominating the Ethereum Layer-2 scene right now.

Fresh data from Dune Analytics shows these two scaling solutions are leaving the competition in the dust, with Base controlling a whopping 55% of all value transferred.

Arbitrum holds a respectable 35% share, while poor Optimism is getting left behind in the revenue race. 

Follow The Money

Base is handily demolishing the competition in fee revenue.

Over 80% of all L2 revenue flows straight to Base, making everyone else look like they're running lemonade stands next to a Fortune 500 company.

Arbitrum, Abstract, and Optimism are fighting over crumbs, with their 5% to 3% shares looking paltry in comparison.

This dominance hasn't been seen since Binance took over the CEX world – and we all know how that story played out.

The Metrics That Matter

So, what separates the winners from the losers in the L2 race?

Skoll, zkSync, and Arbitrum are leading the "value transferred per gas unit" metric, which is basically how much economic activity they squeeze out of each computational unit.

But when it comes to squeezing user profit, Linea is the unexpected champion of "revenue per transaction," followed by Base, zkSync, and Polygon zkEVM.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ethereum is still the big daddy when it comes to NFT trading, holding over 80% of the volume like it's 2021 all over again.

zkSync surprisingly grabbed second place with 10-15% of the NFT market, with Base and Blast trailing behind.

Ethereum's dominance continues for DEX action, but Base and Arbitrum are making serious moves with 25-30% and 15% of L2 volumes, respectively.

With numbers like these, it's not hard to see why Coinbase looks pretty genius for launching Base when it did.

The Ecosystem Drama

Ethereum Co-founder Joseph Lubin says that L2s are Ethereum's best friends forever, while some investors call them parasites.

The reality is far more complicated – L2s are performing a valuable service by taking pressure off the main chain, but they're also extracting massive value that could be going to ETH holders.

This tension creates an ecosystem drama that, to nobody’s surprise, bleeds over to Crypto Twitter in a flurry of hot takes and galaxy-brain tweets. 

The Next Note On The Scale

Base's complete domination probably isn't sustainable long-term, but their lead is big enough to make competitors sweat.

Arbitrum isn't out of the game yet—they're still a seasoned veteran with strong developer loyalty and serious TVL.

Expect more aggressive moves from Optimism, Polygon, and others as they try to avoid becoming the MySpaces of the L2 world.

We’re still so early with this sort of technology, so the long-term winner is still anyone’s guess.