Base blob scaling vs Arbitrum Stylus migration

Scaling via Blobs and TVL

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, which launched on May 7, 2025, implemented EIP-7691 and EIP-7623 to double the blob count per block. This optimization targets 6 blobs and allows a maximum of 9, which reduces fees and increases throughput. These scaling improvements affect all Layer 2 networks. Ethereum’s total value locked in DeFi protocols increased by $2.42 billion over the 30 days ending July 13, 2026, reaching $39.95 billion. This growth occurred even as Ethereum’s L2s collectively lost 24% of their stablecoin supply, roughly $4.34 billion, in Q2. Institutional interest remains high, as tokenized Treasury funds crossed $7 billion in Q2 2026, including BlackRock’s BUIDL fund which holds over $2.5 billion. On January 1, 2025, ETH was at $3,362, while it was $3,045 on December 22. Stablecoin market cap grew from $111.8 billion to $166.9 billion between January 1 and December 22, 2025. Tokenized real-world assets increased 198% from $4.12 billion to $12.3 billion during 2025. The market also faced a massive liquidation event on October 10, when $19.37 billion was wiped out overnight.

Arbitrum’s Stylus and the Gaming Shift

The Arbitrum Stylus upgrade allows developers to submit contracts in WASM, which enables the use of Rust and C. Stylus contracts use less gas for the same computation than EVM contracts. The Stylus Sprint application process received 147 high-quality submissions, which exceeded the initial 5 million ARB budget. From these applications, 17 projects won funding to work on developer tooling, privacy, and AI integration over the next 12 months. The gaming sector on Arbitrum benefits from this technological shift as the industry moves from play-to-earn to play-and-own models. In this model, players earn tradable NFT assets with utility, while studios control scarcity through marketplaces. The industry moved away from inflationary mechanics after 93% of Web3 gaming projects launched between 2020 and 2026 failed, a trend that followed the collapse of Axie Infinity, which saw its daily active users fall from 2.7 million in Q3 2021 to 99,000 in late 2025. Other chains compete for this audience, including BNB Chain’s opBNB, which recorded 1.62 million daily unique active wallets. Ronin saw a 55% surge in daily active wallets in Q3 2025, while Solana’s gaming daily active users grew 340% year-over-year through 2025. Immutable’s zkEVM offers gas-free NFT gaming, while WAX records 215,650 daily unique active wallets. TON maintains a massive user base with Catizen recording 7 million daily active players.

Robinhood Chain Revenue

Robinhood Chain launched on July 1, 2026, as a dedicated Arbitrum-based chain. On August 30, the network processed 5.52 million transactions and reached a decentralized exchange volume of $879 million. The network’s TVL reached approximately $708 million, and stablecoin supply reached about $770 million in late August. The Arbitrum Expansion Program requires deployed chains to return 10% of protocol net revenue to the ecosystem. The Arbitrum Expansion Program requires deployed chains to return 10% of protocol net revenue to the ecosystem, as 8% goes to the ArbitrumDAO treasury and 2% goes to the Arbitrum Developer Guild. During a peak 24-hour period, the DAO received $175,612 from Robinhood Chain activity. Traders estimate that if Robinhood Chain sustains $2 million in daily protocol revenue, the annualized ecosystem contribution would reach $73 million. In one active 24-hour period, apps on Robinhood Chain earned $2.66 million, though much of this came from speculative activity like the memecoin platform GMGN and the token launchpad Pons. The price of ARB climbed more than 30% toward $0.11 as traders priced in this revenue potential. You know that scaling through specialized chains creates a different economic profile than general-purpose scaling. However, the distinction between protocol revenue and token-holder revenue is a problem for investors.

The Layer 2 Competition

The competition between Base’s blob-driven scaling and Arbitrum’s revenue-sharing infrastructure defines the current Layer 2 landscape. Base scales via the throughput increases of the Pectra upgrade, while Arbitrum captures value through specialized chains like Robinhood. The Arbitrum Expansion Program turns infrastructure adoption into a scalable revenue source rather than a technology partnership. Arbitrum’s move toward Stylus and WASM targets the developer market, while Robinhood Chain targets the financial services market.

Which model generates more long-term liquidity? The industry will continue to watch if specialized revenue sharing can sustain the growth of the broader ecosystem.