As we are progressing in 2025, the Ethereum ecosystem is not just thriving, but also brimming with potential for growth and development. The adoption of Layer 2 (L2) solutions is a testament to this, effectively addressing the blockchain’s scalability challenges by processing transactions off-chain while leveraging Ethereum’s security. L2s are not just reducing gas fees and boosting throughput, but also driving Web3 adoption. A few key players dominate the landscape, split between optimistic rollups (prioritizing liquidity and compatibility) and zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups (emphasizing finality and efficiency). This article ranks the top five Ethereum L2 solutions, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, zkSync Era, and Starknet, based on throughput, user adoption, TVL, and ecosystem size. This information will inspire developers and users to choose the right platform for their needs and be part of the exciting growth journey of the Ethereum ecosystem.

1. Arbitrum: The Liquidity and Composability Hub

Arbitrum is the largest general-purpose Ethereum L2 by TVL, with L2BEAT (a reputable source for L2 data) reporting roughly $19B in TVS in mid-2025. That scale comes with deep DeFi liquidity: major protocols (Uniswap, Aave) and high-volume venues operate significant pools and trading activity on Arbitrum, concentrating order flow and counterparty depth. 

Daily chain activity is substantial: Arbiscan shows multi-million daily transactions during busy periods, demonstrating real consumer and protocol throughput. Nitro, Arbitrum’s core stack upgrade, improved calldata (the data that a function call can take as an argument) compression, throughput, and cost efficiency. At the same time, the Stylus initiative adds a WASM/Rust execution path so teams can write high-performance contracts beyond Solidity.

What this means in practice: projects that need on-chain liquidity, composability, and minimal porting work choose Arbitrum first. Bridges, SDKs, and wallet integrations are mature, reducing engineering friction for DeFi stacks that must interoperate across multiple protocols. Best for teams prioritizing liquidity and cross-protocol composability.

Best for: teams prioritizing liquidity and cross-protocol composability; and consumer products, social/retail dApps, and projects prioritizing fiat on-ramps and immediate user activation.

2. Base: Consumer Onboarding and Fiat-Native Flows

Base has become the fastest-growing consumer-facing Ethereum L2, driven by direct product funnels from Coinbase and tight wallet integrations. L2BEAT shows Base sitting on around $15B TVL range, reflecting heavy retail activity and growing on-chain liquidity.

What sets Base apart is distribution: Coinbase’s wallets and fiat rails funnel mainstream users into Base with minimal friction, while account abstraction and fee abstractions reduce the onboarding tax for newcomers. That combination makes Base the obvious first-choice L2 for apps that need rapid user growth rather than deep cross-protocol composability. Coinbase’s own reporting and ecosystem commentary highlight Base as a strategic channel for consumer adoption and product experiments. 

Best for: consumer products, social/retail dApps, and projects prioritizing fiat on-ramps and fast user activation.

3. Optimism: Grants, Coordination, and the Superchain Model

Optimism holds $8 billion in TVL. Optimism combines an OP-Stack optimistic rollup with a funding model that channels resources into developer tooling and public goods. The Bedrock upgrade reduced fees and enhanced interoperability, while Retroactive Public Goods Funding and the Superchain concept encourage teams to develop shared infrastructure that can receive coordinated support. Optimism’s Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RPGF) and open-source governance attract developers focused on community-driven projects. The Bedrock upgrade enhances interoperability, making it a hub for coordinated protocol development.

Optimism’s Superchain vision and grant programs foster a developer ecosystem centered on public goods. It's 200+ dApps, including Velodrome and Synthetix, that ensure steady adoption. 

Best for: Teams seeking grants and interoperable, community-focused stacks.

4. zkSync: zkEVM with Growing Traction

zkSync Era holds roughly $1.1B in TVL and runs a zk-rollup model that prioritizes validity proofs and faster finality. Its zkEVM targets high EVM parity so teams can port Solidity contracts with minimal changes, while Zinc provides a Rust-like option for ZK-native development. Native account abstraction and paymaster patterns simplify UX and allow gas sponsorship, lowering onboarding friction for end users. Public materials and roadmap updates cite multi-thousand TPS capability under ideal prover conditions, though real-world throughput depends on batching, calldata costs, and prover capacity. The ecosystem is smaller than the largest optimistic L2s but growing as SDKs and integrations mature.

Best for: High-throughput, privacy-focused, or settlement-critical dApps.

5. Starknet: STARK Proofs and Compute-Heavy Use Cases

Starknet holds roughly $629 in TVL and uses STARK proofs to scale verification efficiently, giving it strong throughput and cryptographic guarantees. Its Cairo-first model is optimized for ZK computation, which delivers performance and low-cost proof batches but requires teams to learn a new language and toolchain compared with EVM workflows. Starknet’s architecture is well-suited for compute-intensive and privacy-oriented workloads, such as NFT minting at scale, complex on-chain proofs, and DeFi primitives that benefit from large-batched verification. The ecosystem remains smaller than the biggest optimistic rollups, but integrations, bridges, and infrastructure (indexers, dev kits, and tooling) are steadily improving, reducing onboarding friction.

Best for: projects that need advanced cryptography, high verification efficiency, or heavy on-chain computation where STARKs’ cost model and security properties matter.

Choose Based on Trade-Offs

In 2025, the Ethereum L2 landscape is divided into two camps: optimistic rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) for liquidity and developer ease, and ZK rollups (zkSync Era, Starknet) for finality and throughput. Each L2 solution has its unique strengths, such as Arbitrum's DeFi composability, Base's retail adoption, Optimism's grant-driven ecosystems, zkSync's high-throughput settlement, and Starknet's compute-intensive applications. It's crucial to thoroughly evaluate your project’s needs, like liquidity, user onboarding, or technical guarantees, before choosing an L2. This will ensure that you select the most suitable solution for your specific requirements, making you feel informed and prepared for the journey ahead.