1/ @arbitrum didn't just scaled over the years.
It’s entering a unique phase of ecosystem discovery, playing a game few can.
This evolution redefines the boundaries of adoption:
DeFi-native → Institutional Penetration → (Nascent Signs) TradFi Distribution
Insights🧵
3/ @arbitrum has played a foundational role in shaping the perp DEX landscape, dating back to the early vAMM days led by @GMX_IO @GainsNetwork_io since Q3 2021.
Fast forward today, user adoption has reached steady-state maturity w/ strong retention reflected in daily volume trends:
🔸 ~3x increase in daily volume ($1B → $4B) since Q3 2023
🔸 $802.5B in cumulative volume
The perp DEX ecosystem has since diversified with new, specialised players:
🔹 @Rho_xyz: crypto-native IR derivatives (CEX funding rates)
🔹 @Aark_Digital: ultra high-leverage trading (up to 1000x)
🔹 @OstiumLabs: multi-asset exposure (currencies, indices, commodities)
The non-stop innovative evolution & sticky usage points to a self-sustaining relevant ecosystem.
4/ @arbitrum’s RWA-Fi sector growth continues to accelerate to ATHs TVL of $262.7M since Q3 2024.
This momentum, backed by a diverse & growing list of global fund participants reinforces Arbitrum’s status as an enterprise-grade ecosystem for tokenised onchain finance.
Notably, @Spiko_finance’s $EUTBL now leads w/ EU Treasuries segment, commanding ~32% market share surpassing:
🔹 @FTI_Global’s $BENJI (27.5%)
🔹 @BlackRock’s $BUIDL (11.9%)
This clearly signals that insti-grade adoption is no longer theoretical.
5/ As insti-giants lead the charge, what's equally notable is the growing diversity across Arbitrum’s sub-ecosystem.
This spans both RWA integration & DeFi-native innovation.
This blend creates a rich landscape catering to:
🔹 Institutional allocators seeking compliance-ready, yield-bearing assets (e.g., treasuries, credit markets)
🔹 Crypto-native users chasing permissionless leverage, structured products or long-tail yield strategies
By covering both ends of the spectrum, Arbitrum positions itself as an all-encompassing ecosystem:
Capable of capturing capital across every vertical, from DeFi to TradFi.
RWA-Fi on @arbitrum is quietly scaling with maturity.
Since Q3 2024, the sector has grown steadily reaching new ATH TVL of ~$263M across 20 tokenised real-world assets.
Current breakdown shows institutional traction & asset diversity:
🔸 US Treasuries: 65% ($173.3M) driven by institutional-grade funds
🔸 EU Treasuries: 31.9% ($84M) led by @Spiko_finance’s $EUTBL
🔸 Real Estate: 2.8% ($4.8M)
🔸 Equities/Indices: <0.5% (~$1M)
Notably, the ecosystem’s depth has matured w/ new verticals taking shape beyond basic RWA exposure:
1. (Leading) Institutional Funds:
🔹 @BlackRock: $BUIDL fund exposed to ST low-risk T-bills
🔹@FTI_Global: $BENJI fund offering onchain access to onchain US Govt. Money Fund (FOXBB)
🔹@WisdomTreeFunds: Access to 13 tokenised funds incl. equities, fixed income etc.
🔹Wellington Management: ULTRA Fund → US Treasury securities, (reverse) repos & cash reserves
2. Tokenised Yield & Treasuries:
🔹@OndoFinance: $USDY stablecoin backed by US T-bills
🔹@OpenEden_X: $TBILL backed by US T-bills w/ real-time Proof-of-Reserves
🔹@Spiko_finance: $USTBL & $EUTBL tokenised money market fund
3. Real Estate / Alternative Assets:
🔹@EstateProtocol: Tokenised residential & commercial properties
🔹Libre Capital: Private credit, hedge fund & real estate w/ insti-partnerships (Brevan Howard & Hamilton Lane)
4. Equities & Private Credit:
🔹@BackedFi: Tokenised ETFs & stocks
🔹@BerryInvesting: Tokenised stocks, ETFs & MMFs
🔹@centrifuge: Real-world credit & debt pools
🔹@DinariGlobal: Tokenisation of public company shares
🔹@DigiFTTech: Regulated exchange for tokenised securities (issuance + secondary trading)
5. DeFi-Native:
🔹 @GainsNetwork_io: Forex, commodities & crypto perps
🔹 @OstiumLabs: Perps trading + RWA asset collateralisation
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These are early signals pointing toward Arbitrum becoming the de facto L2 for RWA liquidity where traditional capital meets DeFi-native programmability.
Still early & uponly from here imo.
h/t @EntropyAdvisors for the @Dune insights
6/ @arbitrum Orbit & Stylus are becoming key drivers of multi-vertical growth, powering niche builds across a range of domains.
This aligns with the 'appchain thesis', where customisation + flexibility are essential for optimising infra.
Adoption is ramping up fast:
🔸 83 official ecosystem partners
🔸 41 mainnets live (+32% since April 2024)
🔸 21 in testnet + 21 in active development
🔸>$320M TVL across Arbitrum's ecosystem excl. ArbitrumOne
At this pace, it’s clear the framework is gaining industry-wide recognition as enterprise-grade infrastructure for next-gen blockchain applications.
7/ @arbitrum is seeing growing traction from institutional giants backed by real adoption & infra-level validation.
🔸Global Funds: @BlackRock, @FTI_Global, @WisdomTreeFunds, Wellington Management building RWA-Fi liquidity
🔸Infra Rails: @plumenetwork @Novastro_xyz @real_rwa bridging real-world capital onchain
And now, early signs of the TradFi distribution endgame are surfacing:
1. @convergeonchain building an institutional settlement layer (e.g. @ethena_labs, @Securitize)
2. @RaylsLabs rolling out a compliant chain for banks
The takeaway is clear:
Arbitrum is becoming the infrastructure of choice for real-world institutional deployment.
8/ The proliferation of MEV dynamics signals an ecosystem reaching next-stage maturity.
@arbitrum's Timeboost auction introduces efficient, fair competition mirroring mainnet’s PBS model.
Since launching <2 months ago, utilisation is considerably significant:
🔸 ~$1.42M in DAO revenue (annualised ~$8.5M)
🔸 ≥60% of tx fee revenue now comes from Timeboost
We're seeing early signs of MEV atomic arbitrage monetisation w/ most activity concentrated around high-volume pairs (BTC, ETH & stablecoins).
The next stage of maturity will be marked when long-tail assets begin capturing a larger share of MEV flow imo.
On Timeboost: @arbitrum's MEV
Since Arbitrum One & Nova launch, it has been operating via a FCFS sequencing model.
This resulted in:
🔸Latency races dependent on off-chain hardware effectiveness
🔸Network congestion from (arbitrage) tx spamming
Timeboost aims to overcome the limitations of FCFS while still retain its benefits.
How So?
This introduces an 'express lane' concept w/ 60s round managed by the winning auctioneer (mostly Kairos by @titanbuilderxyz & @SeliniCapital rn)
Users submit bids & txs are ranked by payment instead of submission timestamp.
This introduces the following benefits:
🔹 MEV fairness via Similar Ethereum’s PBS (Proposer-Builder Separation)
🔹 Better price discovery mechanism via second-price auction design for valuable txs (arbitrage etc.)
🔹 Less redundant txs → Less network congestion
🔹 Democratises access → users don’t need the fastest infra, just good modelling
9/ Interestingly, Timeboost expresslane alr accounts for ~5% of @arbitrum’s total tx count.
This sits on a steady uptrend since launch.
But what’s more telling is the volume footprint:
🔸 ~$175M in daily trade volume now stems from MEV arbitrage
🔸 ~21.8% of Arbitrum’s ~$900M avg. daily volume (past 1M)
This is highly significant imo, it suggests MEV is no longer a marginal layer but a core liquidity engine powering meaningful volume.
As MEV matures into a native yield stream, it signals both user sophistication + protocol-level monetisation reaching new depth.
10/ Lastly, on InfoFi adoption:
@arbitrum stands out as a key ecosystem embracing this narrative, highlighted by its recent @KaitoAI integration via the yapper leaderboard.
This comes with 400k $ARB (~$124k) incentives over 3 months.
Now, second-layer InfoFi innovation is taking shape w/ @yapyo_arb that positions as a decentralised mindshare hub merging social coordination with incentive design.
Details are scarce, but early signs point to a niche protocol-focused GTM strategy powered by $YAPYO imo.
11/ It’s clear from the data, @arbitrum isn’t just another ecosystem.
It has reached escape velocity, entering the next phase of adoption beyond DeFi & into broader on-chain utility.
The maturity, depth & evolving dynamics speak for themselves.
Not all chains are playing the same game.
Arbitrum is playing its own.
12/ That's all, thanks for reading!
h/t @DefiLlama @Dune & massive s/o to @EntropyAdvisors for building a comprehensive suite of dashboards🫡
For more @arbitrum updates:
If you found this insightful feel free to share👇
lastly, tagging frens, Arbitrum enjoyoors & researchoors who might be interested in this research piece:
@EdFelten
@hkalodner
@ajwarner90
@sgoldfed
@0xRecruiter
@BFreshHB
@daddysether
@Churro808
@samfriedman6_
@lumbergdoteth
@MattyTom01
@peterhaymond
@MarcinPress
@allred_chase
@SpikeCollects
@RealJonahBlake
@yellowpantherx
@CocoraEth
@thelearningpill
@0xAndrewMoh
@Mars_DeFi
@PenguinWeb3
@kenodnb
@YashasEdu
@eli5_defi
@arndxt_xo
@cryptorinweb3
@St1t3h
@crypto_linn
@ahboyash
@ethereumintern_
@Shoalresearch
@Flip_Research
@2077Research
@PinkBrains_io
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