June 26, as reported by CoinDesk, Ryan Berckmans, a member of the Ethereum community, stated in a post on X that the second-layer ecosystem is still strong, and protocols and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) extension platform are rapidly growing, contrary to some pessimistic claims.
His comments were in response to a post by Rushi Manche, founder of Movement Labs, who said, “EVM L2s are going to zero. They are mostly bad compared to SOL.” Berckmans countered that the L2 ecosystem is still “growing like crazy,” citing ecosystem analysis platforms like L2beat, and added, “Coinbase has made an EVM L2. Worldcoin has as well. Immutable X also.”
Impressive Second-Layer Growth
Furthermore, the second layer is seen as an integral part of Ethereum, not just an extension solution, he said, and he believed that due to Ethereum’s “trust neutrality” as the base layer, L2s on the second-largest blockchain provide better value than alternative first-layer networks.
Additionally, in terms of liquidity, mature protocols, and total locked value, Ethereum’s ecosystem is larger and more diverse than its competitors, contrary to Manche’s claims of Solana’s superiority.
Berckmans predicted that in the coming years, L2s will significantly surpass Solana’s transaction throughput. “Regardless of which L2, the total TPS of the L2 ecosystem will quickly exceed Solana’s TPS. About 100 times in five years.”
He also believed that Ethereum’s second-generation ecosystem is more attractive to enterprises and governments because of its security and decentralized characteristics. He described Ethereum’s “settlement network effect,” where the growing second-layer protocol ecosystem increases the benefits of settling on Ethereum and reduces costs.
In conclusion, Berckmans stated that Manche’s comments sound like EVM L2s are already dead and L2s don’t matter, but “neither of these things are true.” “What we’re actually seeing is that Ethereum’s L2 pattern is killing it, and EVM is currently ahead.”
Outlook for the L2 Ecosystem
L2beat’s data shows that the total value locked (TVL) in all L2 protocols is $42.86 billion. Moreover, despite an 18% decline in the cryptocurrency market, TVL has remained stable since March. L2 TVL has grown by approximately 280% since the same time last year.
Arbitrum One leads the L2 market with $17 billion in TVL and nearly 40% market share. Coinbase Base ranks second with $7.3 billion in TVL and 17% market share, followed by OP Mainnet with $6.4 billion and 15% market share.
L2beat lists 58 protocols, compared to just a few protocols listed about a year ago, demonstrating the growth of the ecosystem.
