Base Surpasses Arbitrum and Optimism in Revenue
Base, an Ethereum layer-2 (L2) scaling solution, has taken the lead in the market, surpassing Arbitrum and Optimism combined in revenue. In July, Arbitrum and Optimism collected $5.5 million in combined revenue, while Base's profit of $55 million in 2025 dwarfed that total.
Base's economic model focuses on capturing fees through activity-based streams like DEX trading and agentic payments. The network has reported 11.57 million daily transactions in early 2026, contributing to Coinbase's net revenue via its technology segment.
Arbitrum users favor the network for its deep DeFi liquidity in protocols like GMX and Uniswap, but Arbitrum faces structural hurdles. The ARB token trades at a discount to its implied value, and the Arbitrum DAO is deadlocked over whether to distribute revenue to token holders as dividends or use the funds for grants.
Optimism relies on the Superchain strategy and the OP Stack to grow its ecosystem, but Base's exit from their revenue-sharing agreement in February 2026 caused a significant drop in the OP token price. Optimism has committed to earmarking revenue for 'retroactive public goods funding', but has not distributed any revenue via this method.