Ethereum Layer 2 rollups see yearly low in unique depositors, down 33% from last week

Unique depositors into Ethereum Layer 2 rollup solutions, specifically optimistic and zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups, have reached a yearly low, with just 34,920 users over the past week.

This represents a 33% decrease compared to the previous week’s total and starkly contrasts with mid-April when this figure reached upwards of 250,000 unique depositors in a single week.

This week’s numbers mark a nearly two-year low, highlighting a significant drop in user engagement within Ethereum rollup solutions. The decline may be attributed to various factors, including shifting user preferences, a lack of ecosystem growth in terms of dApps, as well as a lack of incentive for users to continue using these rollups following airdrops from Arbitrum, Optimism, ZKSync and Starknet, all of which occurred within the last two years.

With the recent decline in unique depositors, Ethereum Layer 2 rollups have experienced a corresponding drop in their total value locked (TVL).

Near the beginning of June, rollups received 36,100 unique depositors for the week, which at the time marked the lowest figures since October 2022. Notably, this period also saw the combined TVL of both optimistic and ZK rollups record an all-time high of $25.7 billion.

Since then, their combined TVL has fallen by over 20%, at just over $20.5 billion at the time of writing.

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The combined TVL for optimistic rollups has decreased by over 17% from about $21.5 billion at the beginning of June to roughly $18 billion at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the combined TVL for ZK rollups has seen a more drastic decline, falling by over 33% from $3.77 billion to $2.5 billion.

This decline is likely a direct consequence of the reduced number of unique depositors engaging with rollup solutions over the past several weeks. The decline in TVL for ZK rollups was also heavily caused by recent airdrops for Starknet and ZKSync.

The drop in ZK rollups can be further explained by the recent surge in unique withdrawers over the past few weeks. In the last week alone, ZK rollups saw over 20,000 unique withdrawers. While this figure is substantial, it is notably less than the previous two weeks, which saw weekly unique withdrawers peak at 40,000 and 48,000, respectively.

Despite the recent decline, Layer 2 solutions have seen an increase in TVL this year. TVL on Layer 2 chains has rocketed by 74.77% this year, climbing from $22.6 billion to $39.5 billion.

This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry’s most thought-provoking trends.