Ethereum’s biggest update since Shapella, Dencun, is now scheduled for its first testnet deployment on January 17, 2024. If everything goes according to plan, it will be ready for operation in February. Dencun’s goal is to test Ethereum’s data storage capacity through so-called “proto-Dank sharding”, in which so-called “blob spaces” are added. If the upgrade is successful, fees for Layer 2 rollups could be reduced by up to 90 percent. The Layer 2 sector would once again be able to compete with high-performance blockchains such as Solana or Avalanche in terms of efficiency.
Which isn’t to say that the past year has been one of standstill for Ethereum’s Layer 2 networks. On the contrary: Hardly any other crypto niche has recorded such consistent growth.
1. Ethereum Layer 2 user base hits all-time high
To get you started, a quick overview: The following chart shows the number of unique wallet addresses that interacted with one or more Layer 2 Ethereum networks in a week. That’s 2.8 million users in December. After a short break during this year’s summer slump, the trend is starting to increase rapidly again. It’s just the first of many all-time highs in metrics this year.
2. Daily active addresses reach all-time high
The rapidly growing user base of Layer 2 networks also correlates with a new all-time high in December in terms of the number of daily active addresses. Here too, a clear upward trend can be observed in the chart, even on the supposedly “quiet” main chain (gray curve). The significant upswing in 2023 is likely to continue in 2024.
You can find out what you should know about the Layer 2 sector in Ethereum and what the cryptocurrency is doing in general in the new BTC-ECHO Ethereum Report.
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