Over the past year, L2s have collectively:
→ Generated $137.5M in revenue
→ Paid $20.2M in costs
→ Resulted in $117.3M in on-chain profit
→ Achieved an average margin of 85.7%
However, not all L2s are profitable.
Let’s break it down ↓
First, the macro picture:
L2 activity surged in late 2024 – early 2025, with daily app and chain revenues climbing to multi-million-dollar peaks, before cooling off in spring and gradually recovering through Q3 2025
App Revenue vs Chain Revenue
• App Revenue = fees captured by apps (DEXes, perps, bridges)
• Chain Revenue = gas paid to the L2 (sequencer income)
On @base, for example:
• App Revenue: $3.55M
• Chain Revenue: $227.9k
→ Apps are capturing ~15× more value than the chain itself, a hallmark of a healthy, active ecosystem.
Onchain Profit = Revenue − L1/DA Costs
L2s pay “rent” to Ethereum (L1 calldata / blob costs). After subtracting this, we get Onchain Profit, a proxy for how financially sustainable each L2 is, purely onchain.
Top Performers
Base
• $88.7M revenue
• $5.24M costs
• $83.5M profit
• 94.3% margin
Arbitrum One
• $22.2M revenue | 89.2% margin
Linea / Unichain / Plume
• Lean economics (90%+ margins), smaller absolute scale but highly efficient.
Base is by far the profit engine of the rollup ecosystem.
Blobs Changed the Economics
A big reason margins look this good: EIP-4844 blobs.
Chains that embraced blobs (e.g. Base, Arbitrum, Linea) dramatically reduced their L1 data costs, unlocking margins in the 85–95% range. Those sticking to calldata pay far more to Ethereum for the same throughput.
Blobs turned data availability into a cost advantage, not just a scaling upgrade.
Key Takeaways
• L2s are real businesses: $117M net onchain profit in a year.
• Base dominates both revenue & profit, driven by strong app ecosystems + blob efficiency.
• Blob adoption is now a core economic lever for rollups.
• Ethereum earns steady “rent” from this entire system.
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