How zkSync surpassed Arbitrum and Optimism in NFT volume

Posted: September 11, 2023

• Since its mainnet launch in March, NFT sales volume on zkSync has exceeded Optimism and Arbitrum.
• zkSync has seen significant traction in network activity since May.

With the growing demand for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Layer 2 (L2) solutions, zkSync has surpassed all other L2s in NFT volume since their respective mainnet launches, data from NFTScan showed. 

zkSync implemented its mainnet launch on 24 March as a scaling solution for Ethereum [ETH] that utilizes the zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollup) technology. ZK-rollups are a type of L2 scaling solution that uses cryptographic proofs to verify transactions off-chain, allowing them to achieve much higher throughput and lower gas fees than the Ethereum mainnet.

Despite launching on the mainnet two years after Optimism [OP] and Arbitrum [ARB], zkSync has processed over 160,000 ETH in NFT transactions in under 12 months, data from NFTScan showed. 

Arbitrum and Optimism have processed NFT sales totaling 32,611 ETH and 8,126 ETH since their mainnet launches in 2021.

Despite having the lowest transaction volume among all three L2 platforms, Optimism is the leader in terms of NFT transaction count and wallet addresses. Since OP Mainnnet’s launch on 16 December 2021, the cumulative count of daily NFT transactions completed on the network has totaled 56.153 million. 

Also, its active wallet count at press time was 4.62 million, putting it ahead of zkSync’s 2.11 million and Arbitrum’s 3.08 million. 

Source: NFTScan

All hail zkSync

Regarding user activity, zkSync has seen significant traction on a year-to-date. Data tracked by Artemis revealed that network activity has climbed steadily following the slight slump in the daily count of unique wallet addresses experienced in May.

Since 6 May, the daily count of active addresses sending on-chain transactions on zkSync has rallied by almost 10%. According to the latest data on Artemis, the number of active addresses on the L2 on 9 September totaled 280,000.

As users flocked to the network, daily transactions also increased. Since the May decline, the total number of transactions registered on-chain daily has risen significantly by over 1000%.

Source: Artemis

As for the volume of transactions processed by decentralized exchanges (DEX) housed within the network, there has been a 1600% jump since May. For context, on 11 May, the total DEX volume on zkSync was 6.6 million. As of 10 September, this touched 105 million.

Despite the recent surge in network activity, the total value locked (TVL) in zkSync’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has declined. At $125 million at press time, zkSync’s TVL has dropped by 35% since 25 July, data from DefiLlama revealed. 

Source: DefiLlama