Ethereum and the extended Layer 2 (L2) ecosystem are seeing demand surge, with recent data signaling a significant uptick in user activity across most L2 networks.
One of our go-to sources for on-chain intel, @growthepie_eth, shared some stats that really stood out to us this week. They cover an ensemble of emerging and established L2 networks—from Arbitrum and Optimism to StarkNet and ZKSync. All these networks show very healthy growth in terms of user engagement.
Manta Network to Base, Layer 2s are emerging as DeFi’s next frontier. Developers across the DeFi landscape are testing and deploying their applications directly on Layer 2s. And users, enchanted by the promise of an ultra-low gas fee future, have already begun migrating some of their activities there.
Celo, Manta, and Others Show Impressive Growth
Absolute user numbers have Base topping the growth charts. Coinbase’s L2, built on the OP Stack, saw a 36% rise in active addresses over the past month, bringing its total to a staggering 16.41 million. Integration with Coinbase products has been seamless. That, along with the growing ecosystem of apps that seem to be focused on consumer use cases, has been the draw for developers and users who have come to the Base network in increasing numbers.
Next in line is Soneium, a newer entrant that saw a 55% increase in activity and now boasts 1.27 million active addresses. Close behind is GravityChain, up 32% with 880.8K active addresses, and Celo—which, although traditionally not classified as a Layer 2, has surged 73% to reach 774.3K users. Celo’s recent pivot toward Ethereum compatibility appears to be paying off in a big way; in fact, it’s giving Celo a fresh injection of on-chain activity.
While, MetisL2 fulfills the 33% gain with 486.1K active addresses, and Mint Blockchain saw an impressive 51% spike to 110.9K users. The biggest surprise came from Manta Network, which recorded a staggering 460% growth rate in active addresses in the last month, now at 94.8K.
🚀 Trending Layer 2s are heating up 📈
30D Surge in Active Addresses — via @growthepie_eth:
▫️ @base – 36% | 16.41M
▫️ @soneium – 55% | 1.27M
▫️ @GravityChain – 32% | 880.8K
▫️ @Celo – 73% | 774.3K
▫️ @MetisL2 – 33% | 486.1K
▫️ @Mint_Blockchain – 51% | 110.9K
▫️ @MantaNetwork -… https://t.co/oXPxgrR67o pic.twitter.com/5As6YDV5TZ— Ethereum Daily (@ETH_Daily) April 14, 2025
Manta, which is known for its features focusing on zero-knowledge (ZK) privacy and modular architecture, is rapidly capturing attention in the L2 space. It has users who are seeking out scalable platforms that can maintain privacy and security. Manta’s rise in the L2 arena is likely just getting started.
A Case of Mistaken Identity: Manta’s Co-Founder Draws the Crowd’s Ire
Even though Manta has succeeded, the project this week found itself caught up in a storm of bad press—without having done anything wrong, of course. When the $OM token, issued by an entirely separate project called MANTRA, plummeted 92% in value, a confused mob of crypto users took to social media to target the co-founder of Manta Network, blaming him for the token’s disaster and—somehow—also blaming the Project Manta itself.
The co-founder of Manta (an Ethereum L2) got mistaken for the founder of MANTRA, the token $OM that crashed -92% yesterday.
People flooded his mentions with hate, and he clarified it in the tweet.
But once the crowd saw that $MANTA chart, they kept flaming him anyway 🤣 pic.twitter.com/BeWjbuYLru
— HodlFM Team (@Hodl_fm) April 14, 2025
The co-founder of Manta moved swiftly to Twitter to set the record straight that Manta and MANTRA have nothing to do with each other. This is certainly a needed PR move. But PR aside, it’s also necessary because failure to clarify could have led to some serious FUD for Manta Network, given the substantial recent performance of the actual $MANTA token, which has exploded in value since announcing and beginning to offer utility a couple of months ago.
In the fast-moving, even chaotic, information milieu of crypto, it was a strange but informative moment. Misinformation can spread at lightning speed, and sentiment can swing wildly with little prompting, even when all is going well. Yet, even in this bubble of unreality, success stories can turn into unintended targets. In this light, New York Magazine’s profile of OpenSea, headlined “The NFT Marketplace Is a Scam,” looks both strange and sadly informative.
Layer 2s Are Winning, But the Market Remains Unforgiving
The Layer 2 adoption bump is a promising force for Ethereum’s scalability roadmap, and L2 networks are clearly solving real problems and taking on millions of users. They’re doing it in a way that enables dApps to run
at anywhere near the performance of Ethereum at the time of that dApp’s first public unveiling. But, the Manta incident also reminds us just how volatile—financially and socially—this whole crypto space still is.
The Layer 2 wars are heating up, and with that, projects need to do more than just scale technically; they have to deal with an increasingly noisy and reactive community, too. One thing is for sure: the contest for user attention and capital on Ethereum’s second layer is just getting started.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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