Overview
- Buterin said the original vision for L2s "no longer makes sense" and urged viewing them as a spectrum rather than automatic extensions of Ethereum.
- He argued L2s linked by multisig bridges are not truly "scaling Ethereum," calling for tighter trust standards where ETH and major assets are involved.
- On-chain data shows rising rollup usage alongside falling capital secured, with L2Beat reporting roughly 3,470 user ops per second and a year-over-year TVS decline to about $40.3 billion.
- Ethereum’s core capacity is growing after a January gas-limit increase to 80 million, reducing pressure to rely on rollups for base block space.
- L2 teams began repositioning after the remarks, with leaders from Arbitrum, Base and Polygon stressing unique value beyond cheap fees and signaling greater independence from the mainnet brand, while work on native rollups and zkEVM verification gains support.