Activity Stagnates Post-Merge Ethereum, Sidechain on Losing Side

Ethereum pulled off a stunning technical upgrade that saw the popular blockchain transition to the proof-of-stake consensus model for processing transactions after six years of work. However, post-merge activity on layer-2 has dropped.

According to the latest stats by Dapp Radar, the already descending unique active wallets and transactions have further dropped by 35% from August to September. A similar trend was seen in terms of Ethereum’s TVL, which fell by 5.6% to $31.41 billion month-to-month.

“Due to the high economic uncertainty and current macroeconomic landscape, and taking into consideration that the merge wasn’t a huge scaling event but only a tiny step in the Ethereum roadmap, the indicators are showing us that the Merge hadn’t had this huge impact people expected.” – reads the post.

Activity in Polygon, Ronin Dampens

The sidechain protocol known for executing cheaper fees and much faster transaction rates also saw the same descending trend as Ethereum. The FOMO-fueled pre-Merge enthusiasm pushed transactions by 6.5% and unique active wallets (UAW) by 4% higher from June to August 2022 on Polygon.

However, a sharp decrease was noted in September as the hype faded. Month-to-month, a decrease of 33% in transactions and a 17% drop in unique active wallets.

Another Ethereum sidechain, Ronin, which also happens to be the backbone of Axie Infinity, suffered a similar fate. Its transactions count and unique active wallets were down by 51% and 54%, respectively, from August 2022.

Optimism, Arbitrum Stand Out

Since the beginning of 2022, Optimism, the layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, has maintained an upward trajectory even as its transactions count and unique active wallets both fell by 37% compared to the previous month. It is, however, worth noting that, Optimism saw an increase of 194% in transactions count and 275% in unique active wallets and has been touted as the “best-performing protocols during this crypto winter” by the report.

From July to August, its TVL rose by 228%, from around $274.46 million to nearly $902.74 million. The following month it saw a minor decline of 2% to $884.6 million.

Another layer-2 solution project that was on the winning side during this bear market is Arbitrum. Its already ascending transactions count further increased by 54.7% from August to September. Its TVL also rose by 2% in September to approximately $979 million from the previous month.

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