• Optimism and Arbitrum are some of the best-known layer-2 networks.

• The two network’s metrics have diverged in the past few days.

• These metrics include the number of users and open interest.

Optimism and Arbitrum ecosystems have diverged in the past few weeks. Arbitrum’s number of active addresses has dropped from an all-time high of 191,612 in March this year to over 148k. Most recently, Optimism’s users has been in an upward trend and reached a high of 132,893.

The same trend is happening in their the performance of their decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. Data compiled by DeFi Llama shows that Optimism’s total value locked (TVL) in its ecosystem stands at over $1.27 billion while Arbitrum’s stands at over $3 billion.

The two ecosystems have been relatively stable in the past few weeks. However, while Arbitrum’s TVL has dropped by 0.40% in the past 30 days, Optimism’s TVl has risen by over 13% in the past 30 days. This makes it second only to Solana whose TVL has jumped by more than 30%.

TVL is an important metric in the crypto industry in that it shows the amount of money locked in a network. Ideally, a network with a higher TVL is seen as being more active. In this regard, the most active ecosystems are Ethereum, Tron, and BNB Chain.

Additional data shows that the open interest of Optimism and Arbitrum’s tokens has diverged. The open interest of Arbitrum futures stands at $160 million, where it has been in the past few months. Optimism’s open interest, on the other hand, has been in an upward trend as you can see below. It rose to over $171 million this month and has now stabilised at $143 million.

A likely reason for this divergence is Worldcoin, the recently launched cryptocurrency. The WLD token has done well mostly because of the underlying technology and the fact that its creator is the founder of OpenAi, the company that introduced ChatGPT. Worldcoin is built on top of  Optimism.

At the same time, the OP token has outperformed Arbitrum’s token. OP has risen by more than 20% this year while ARB token has risen by 4% in the past 30 days. 

Looking ahead, the next catalyst for Optimism token will be the upcoming token unlock that will happen on Sunday. The event will see the number of outstanding tokens jump according to the vesting schedule.

How to buy Optimism