

**Ethereum's Layer-2 ecosystem reached $37.4 billion in total value locked, confirming that the network's scaling upgrades are shifting activity to L2s while keeping settlement on the mainnet.** Ethereum's weekly transaction count hit 18 million while median fees fell to $0.008, a divergence that shows the scaling roadmap is working. "The Pectra and Fusaka upgrades expanded blob throughput and data availability, which is exactly what L2s need to scale without congesting L1," Jason Wu, on-chain analyst at Edgen, said. Total blob fees reached 1.492 million ETH, per Dune Analytics, reflecting adoption of proto-danksharding. L2 TVL now stands at $37.41 billion, nearly half of Ethereum mainnet's total. Base leads with $11.86 billion, followed by Arbitrum One, ZKsync, and OP Mainnet. Base processed 248.3 million transactions in the period, accounting for 29.1 percent of all L2 activity, while Robinhood Chain posted a 30,922 percent monthly surge in transaction count. The milestone validates Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap, potentially drawing more developers and capital to L2s and pressuring competing L1 chains to justify their valuations. Monthly active users on Ethereum rose 2.9 percent to 8.3 million, signaling the ecosystem is attracting new participants even as activity migrates to L2s. **L2 Transaction Volumes Surge as Costs Collapse** Transaction counts on L2s have spiked since late June. Arbitrum One saw monthly transaction growth of 22.2 percent, while Optimism posted 19.2 percent and Base added 13.4 percent, according to Token Terminal data. Robinhood Chain, the newest entrant, recorded a 30,922 percent monthly increase and now accounts for 13.9 percent of all L2 transactions. The median transaction fee on Ethereum fell to an all-time low of $0.008, even as weekly transaction counts reached 18 million. That cost collapse is the direct result of proto-danksharding, which uses temporary data blobs to reduce L2 posting costs to Ethereum. **What the $37.4B TVL Milestone Means for the Ecosystem** The $37.41 billion locked across L2s represents nearly half of Ethereum mainnet's total TVL, per L2BEAT data. Base leads at $11.86 billion, up 1.04 percent, followed by Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet. ZKsync was the only top L2 to post a decline. This concentration of value on L2s strengthens the thesis that Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap is working as designed: execution scales on L2s while security and settlement remain on Ethereum L1. The next test will come with further data availability improvements in upcoming upgrades, which could push L2 TVL past $50 billion by year-end. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

dYdX Chain released version 5.1 on July 22, introducing permissionless market listings that allow any user to create new trading markets without governance approval, a structural shift designed to expand the platform's addressable market. "This upgrade removes the bottleneck of governance votes for new market creation, letting the community and market makers respond to demand in real time," a dYdX spokesperson said. The v5.1 upgrade eliminates the previous requirement for governance proposals to list new perpetual and spot markets. Any user can now deploy markets by meeting on-chain parameters, including minimum liquidity thresholds and oracle feed requirements. The change mirrors the permissionless expansion playbook that Hyperliquid deployed through its HIP-3 and HIP-4 upgrades, which opened perpetual and outcome market listings to staked deployers starting in October 2025. The upgrade positions dYdX to compete more directly with Hyperliquid, which generated $1.34 trillion in trading volume and $320 million in revenue during the first half of 2026, according to Bitwise. dYdX's market share in perpetual futures has faced pressure as Hyperliquid's unified margin model and lower fee structure attracted volume. Whether v5.1 reverses that trend depends on how quickly deployers create markets and whether liquidity providers follow. **How Permissionless Listings Work on dYdX** Under v5.1, deployers must meet on-chain parameter requirements rather than passing a governance vote for each listing. The system uses predefined templates for market structure, similar to the template-based approach Hyperliquid introduced with HIP-4 on July 20. Hyperliquid's HIP-4 requires deployers to stake 500,000 HYPE tokens, worth about $30 million, locked for at least six months. dYdX has not disclosed equivalent staking requirements for its permissionless system, with details expected in forthcoming documentation. The competitive stakes are significant. Hyperliquid's HIP-4 outcome markets generated roughly $100 million in trading volume during their first month after launching on mainnet in May 2026, according to the protocol. dYdX's v5.1 does not include outcome markets — it focuses on perpetual and spot listings — but the architectural shift toward permissionless deployment follows the same strategic logic: let external deployers drive market growth rather than bottlenecking it through governance. **What This Means for DYDX Token Economics** The permissionless upgrade introduces a new demand driver for DYDX if deployers must stake or hold the token to create markets. Hyperliquid's HIP-3 and HIP-4 staking requirements have removed millions of HYPE from circulating supply — each HIP-4 deployer locks 500,000 HYPE worth roughly $30 million. dYdX's specific token requirements for permissionless deployment remain unannounced, but any staking mechanism would create similar supply-side pressure. dYdX's total value locked stood at roughly $480 million across its perpetual and spot markets as of mid-July, according to DefiLlama, compared with Hyperliquid's $2.1 billion. The v5.1 upgrade gives dYdX a path to narrow that gap by letting external market makers and trading firms list the pairs they want to trade, without waiting for governance cycles that can take weeks. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Circle Internet Group signed a non-binding MOU with South Korea's Kakao Group on July 22 to explore a Korean won stablecoin and blockchain-based payments infrastructure. "Korea is one of the world's leading digital markets and has a solid foundation for financial innovation," Kash Razzaghi, chief commercial officer at Circle, said in a statement. The partnership brings together Circle's USDC infrastructure with Kakao Group's digital ecosystem, which includes KakaoTalk's messaging platform, Kakao Pay's payment services with more than 40 million users, and KakaoBank's financial capabilities. The companies plan to develop business models combining Kakao's platform reach with Circle's blockchain and global payments network for won-based digital assets and tokenized financial services. The MOU is an exploratory agreement rather than a binding commercial contract, and the companies did not disclose a detailed issuance structure or service launch timeline. The project's direction will depend on South Korea's pending Digital Asset Basic Act and rules governing who may issue won stablecoins, according to the statement. The two sides are reviewing ways to use Circle's payments infrastructure to improve global payments, cross-border remittances and merchant settlement, according to the July 23 announcement. They also plan technical cooperation to strengthen interoperability between blockchain networks and existing financial systems. Kakao Group has formed a joint stablecoin task force co-led by Shin Won-keun, chief executive officer of Kakao Pay, to coordinate the initiative. The group is also considering shared infrastructure that would allow other domestic companies to develop related services beyond the won stablecoin project. "Competitiveness in digital assets cannot be built on technology alone," Shin said. "Based on the platform, payments and financial service experience built into daily life, Kakao Group will work with Circle to prepare early for a Korean-style digital-asset ecosystem." South Korea is one of the most active crypto markets globally by trading volume, and a won-backed stablecoin could significantly expand stablecoin use cases in retail payments and cross-border transactions. Circle's USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap with a circulating supply of roughly $34 billion, currently operates primarily on Ethereum, Solana and other major blockchains. The partnership marks Circle's latest push into Asia after the company expanded its presence in Singapore and Japan. For Kakao Group, the move represents an effort to extend its financial services footprint into digital assets ahead of clearer domestic regulation. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.