Base captured 60%+ of L2 volume in peak months thanks to Coinbase's user base. Native 'Send to Base' integration means millions of retail users land on Base without choosing it. Distribution beats technology in UX-driven markets.
Arbitrum holds ~$15.5B in DeFi assets—more than any L2. Stylus multi-VM execution lets developers write in Rust and Solidity. But TVL doesn't equal volume. Arbitrum is the DeFi fortress, not the retail gateway.
Liquidity begets liquidity. Smaller rollups (zkSync, StarkNet, Polygon) couldn't attract deep order books. Protocols like Aave and Synthetix abandoned them due to poor execution and negative incentive ROI.
Optimism's upcoming Interop layer aims to unify Superchain L2s—making cross-chain messaging feel like browser tabs. If it ships cleanly in Q1 2027, Optimism could consolidate liquidity and reclaim competitive ground.
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