# Arbitrum and Optimism

By [shefff](https://paragraph.com/@bigstrrongboy) · 2023-03-10

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While the market is blushing again, let's remember what we are here for - technology, of course. We can, for example, compare the performance ([https://ignasdefi.substack.com/p/optimism-vs-arbitrum-the-battle-for](https://ignasdefi.substack.com/p/optimism-vs-arbitrum-the-battle-for)) of Optimism and Arbitrum to conclude: both are gem.

💲 Money.

*   Optimism has raised $178 million and is valued at $1.65 billion. Arbitrum has raised $143 million and is valued at $1.2 billion. Top VCs like Pantera and Coinbase have invested in both protocols.
    
*   OP's current capitalization is $634.4 million with an FDV of $8.68 billion.
    

🛠 KPI.

*   TVL Arbitrum One is nearly twice as high as Optimism, ~1 billion vs. ~2 billion according to DefiLlama. L2Beat shows figures of $1.6 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively.
    
*   That said, Arbitrum is now the leader in terms of number of transactions and one day even surpassed Ethereum.
    
*   The number of Optimism transactions has dropped significantly since the end of the quest campaign.
    
*   Arbitrum is also leading by the number of active addresses, although the gap is not critical and sometimes changes to the opposite.
    
*   The average cost of a transaction in Arbitrum is lower, about 30 cents compared to 36 cents in Optimism.
    
*   TVL and the number of projects on both networks are growing faster than on any other smart contract platform.
    

🚀 Catalysts.

*   In mid-2023, the Ethereum EIP-4844 (proto-dunksharing) upgrade is expected to see commissions on both networks drop by a factor of ten.
    
*   The main upcoming Optimism upgrade is called Bedrock and is scheduled for April.
    
*   Coinbase's recently launched L2 blockchain is built on Optimism. Coinbase will be involved in further development of the technology stack as well.
    
*   The main catalyst for Arbitrum is the release of a token, which, if successfully launched, will cement the success of the network.
    
*   Arbitrum's second network, called Nova, is used by Reddit for its community program. Nova beat out Solana, StarkWare and Polygon.
    

ℹ️ Monitoring all L2 solutions: [https://l2beat.com/scaling/tvl](https://l2beat.com/scaling/tvl) ℹ️ Comparison dashboard on Dune: [https://dune.com/blockworks\_research/l2-comparison-dashboard](https://dune.com/blockworks_research/l2-comparison-dashboard) ℹ️ Top TVL protocols on Arbitrum: [https://defillama.com/chain/Arbitrum](https://defillama.com/chain/Arbitrum) ℹ️ Top TVL protocols on Optimism: [https://defillama.com/chain/Optimism](https://defillama.com/chain/Optimism)

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*Originally published on [shefff](https://paragraph.com/@bigstrrongboy/arbitrum-and-optimism)*