Arbitrum and Optimism tokens trade near all-time high price levels

The crypto market is off to a breakout this new year, with the price of bitcoin surpassing $45,000 for the first time since April 2022 amid investors’ anticipation of a potential approval of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States.

Meanwhile, tokens for two major Layer 2 scaling solutions — Arbitrum ARB +15.04% and Optimism OP +3.56% — have witnessed price rallies over the last month — with both trading near their historical highs.

The Arbitrum token gained 13% today, reaching the record high of $1.83 — representing a 60% price jump over the past month. It’s currently changing hands at $1.78 with a market capitalization of $2.3 billion, according to The Block’s Price Page.

 

 

The OP token, the native token of the OP Mainnet (previously known as Optimism), reached its record-high price of $4.10 last Wednesday. Since then, the token has been trading around the peak, with levels of $4.05 seen today during Asian trading hours. As of 8:50 a.m. ET, the OP token is trading at $3.87, according to The Block .

 

 

Layer 2 tokens

Optimism and Arbitrum — the top two Layer 2 solutions by adoption — utilize Optimistic rollup technologies. They allow users to process transactions off the main Ethereum blockchain, presenting a more cost-effective method. ARB and OP tokens are essential for governing these networks.

Over the past three months, both networks have experienced a jump in transaction volume. Starting from Q4 2023, Arbitrum’s daily transactions rose from 670,000 to 926,000 — marking a 38% increase, according to The Block data . In the same timeframe, the OP Mainnet saw its daily transactions grow by 20%, from 354,000 to 431,000.

The total value locked on Arbitrum remains the highest among all Layer 2 solutions at $2.57 billion. The second-largest Optimistic rollup by TVL — the OP mainnet — holds over $937 million in assets.