We’ve been saying for a few months now that Linea is the L2 where Ethereum wins and ETH capital grows, which is an exciting mission to realize on its own, but it also means pushing the entire L2 landscape into a new era of sustainability. Linea hopes to lead the way in becoming, as Declan Fox recently put it: “a real, self-funding economy.” 

To accelerate this mission and reward the next generation of foundational dapps, we are excited to introduce Linea Exponent.

Linea Exponent is a 3-month growth program designed to permissionlessly reward the apps that scale the fastest and bring the most users into the ecosystem. From November 04, 2025, to January 30, 2026, developers around the world will launch and scale the most impactful apps and tokens on Linea.

Exponent eliminates the old builder bureaucracy: no judges, pitch decks, or panel votes. Your app, your users, and your token are the only metrics that matter: all onchain, verified, and rewarded.

The mechanism for success is simple and transparent: Your app’s rank is determined by the number of transactions from verified users (users must verify their humanity through Sumsub to count).

To win, developers simply need to deploy or migrate their app to Linea, register on the Linea Developer Hub, and compete as every verified user transaction moves them up the Exponent leaderboard.

What “Verified User Transaction” Means

A verified user transaction is any onchain transaction made by a wallet that has completed a Proof of Humanity check using Linea’s Proof of Humanity (POH). Only transactions from verified wallets count toward the leaderboard — filtering out spam and bots so only genuine user engagement matters.

Top performers unlock rewards from the Consensys ecosystem like subscriptions to Infura and Web3Auth, subsidized smart contract audits, access to core engineers, and priority support channels, as well as direct support to launch their tokens with liquidity seeded on Etherex. Linea is also looking at potential long-term support for high caliber winners – meaning your dapp could even be the next Etherex.

The total prize pool for the program is $250,000 for the top 42 teams, alongside fast-track access to broader Linea ecosystem funding opportunities. Winners also gain global visibility, features on Linea social media and livestreams, and exclusive access to selective in-person events and a founders dinner with Linea leadership.

Exponent is also an engine for growth that directly reinforces Linea’s core economic model. On Linea, every transaction fuels a unique dual-burn mechanism designed to strengthen both ETH and the ecosystem. Any increase in onchain activity, means more revenue for Linea. All user fees are paid in ETH. Twenty percent of net gas fees (after Layer 1 costs) are burned, directly reducing ETH supply. The remaining eighty percent of gas fees are used to burn LINEA. Thus, increased onchain activity means more gas burn and benefit for token holders. This creates a direct economic link between network usage and value accrual.

This is how Linea (and other L2s) can become sustainable, self-funding economies and simultaneously strengthen Ethereum to step into its new role at the center of the global economy.

Your idea can play a key role in this transition and earn your team rewards in the process.

Your users decide your rank. Your app defines the next chapter of Ethereum. Everyone wins.

Believe in your project? Believe in SomETHing? Register for Exponent now.