The hottest Layer 2 Substack posts right now

Crypto businesses are evolving beyond just interesting technology. They need to solve real market problems to succeed.
Layer 2 solutions help reduce costs and improve transaction speeds. They thrive on attracting users by offering engaging applications.
Most crypto platforms operate as marketplaces, connecting different types of users. They make money by taking a small percentage of transactions.

Saigon Testnet will hardfork and migrate onto Ethereum via Optimism at block #45528550 on Feb 5, 2026, and the testnet Chain ID will update to 202601.
Users don’t need to do anything — games, apps, and the Ronin Wallet will keep working, and bridging and in‑app swaps will remain available.
Builders must upgrade RPC nodes before the hardfork and expect about eight hours of downtime. Running Saigon as an L2 after migration requires reth and op-node and launching from the provided state snapshot.

Ronin saw real demand and engagement in 2025, with millions of users, hundreds of millions of transactions, strong marketplace presales, and popular experiences like Fortune Spin and Ronin Arcade driving activity.
A large crop of builders drove growth—about 1,000 teams launched on Ronin and several games and collections delivered big presales, trading volume, and highly engaged communities.
Ronin is shifting into growth mode for 2026 with a migration to an Optimism OP Stack L2, a new Proof of Distribution rewards system for builders, and a push to make onboarding and payments easier including real-world partnerships and retail integrations.

Saigon Testnet has migrated to Ethereum via Optimism, and the Ronin mainnet migration is planned to follow in the coming months.
Builders should prepare infrastructure to run reth and op-node, use the downloadable state snapshot, and follow the provided guide before launching or resuming any Saigon RPC or L2 node.
Users don’t need to take any action and games, apps, and the Ronin Wallet will keep working; the migration aims to make transactions faster, rewards fairer, and inherit Ethereum’s security.

BIS to focus on tokenisation & CBDC in 2024; tokenised treasuries market cap up 657% YoY
Polygon's Chain Development Kit received a boost from NEAR Protocol with lower data storage costs
Frax Finance completed V3 rollout, launches Frax Bonds for utility across DeFi protocols

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DeFi protocols like Curve Finance were exploited in a $70 million hack due to reentrancy attacks.
Vyper is a secure programming language for Ethereum, used for writing smart contracts.
Stable Pools in DeFi facilitate efficient trading between stable assets with minimal price slippage.

Circle, the USDC issuer, has filed for an IPO in the US, aiming to become a publicly traded company.
Polygon launched a new testnet and zkEVM enters the next stage of development, enhancing developer resources.
Cosmos Hub is considering a proposal to reduce ATOM's inflation rate to 0%, if approved by the network.

Ethereum Layer-2 networks reach a record high TVL of nearly $21B in Jan 2024.
This week's DeFi market cap and volume indices were negative, while volatility was positive.
News highlights include Ethereum Dencun upgrade testnet dates and plans for PYUSD deployment on Aave.

Ethereum Dencun upgrade goes live on Sepolia testnet.
Weekly DeFi market cap index was positive, volume and volatility indices negative.
TVL of top chains and top DEX by chain were highlighted.

The Pectra upgrade for Ethereum increased the maximum balance a validator can hold, allowing for better rewards and encouraging the consolidation of multiple validators into one.
The upgrade also doubled the available blob space, which improves how Layer-2 solutions can operate, making transactions cheaper and faster for users.
Early results show that more blobs are being used, and transaction counts have significantly increased, but there's still potential for even more growth in usage.

The AI-crypto hype cycle collapsed, but because both AI and crypto keep advancing, the sector is likely to come back in a new and stranger wave.
Very cheap token launches and low onchain fees mean AI agents could be paid small amounts of crypto to perform tasks like trading or giving financial advice, creating real demand for tokens.
Tokenization can unlock new markets (real‑world assets, ads, prediction markets), but coupling that with AI agents could lead to unpredictable, highly volatile market behavior and new systemic risks.