ERC-20 tokens are now usable.

Arbitrum Orbit has recently implemented support for custom ERC-20 gas tokens, allowing Orbit Layer 3 chains to develop specific functionalities for their tokens. Let’s see all the details below. 

The integration of ERC-20 tokens opens up new possibilities for Arbitrum Orbit

As anticipated, Arbitrum Orbit, the platform that allows the development of Layer 3 blockchains on Ethereum Layer 2 Arbitrum, has introduced support for custom gas tokens, used to pay blockchain transaction fees.

This evolution now allows Orbit chains to use specific ERC-20 tokens, subject to compliance with technical requirements, for managing gas and transaction fees on their networks.

We remind you that, until recently, Orbit chains were limited to using ether as the gas token.

The introduction of ERC-20 tokens as gas tokens offers Orbit chains the opportunity to develop custom functionalities for their tokens, promoting the growth of their ecosystem. 

David Dennis, product marketing lead at Offchain Labs, the main developer of Arbitrum, highlighted that this option is particularly useful for projects like games that want an in-game economic model but prefer to build on Arbitrum and Ethereum.

Xai Gaming is one of the immediate examples of adoption of this new functionality, collaborating with Arbitrum since last June to develop an Orbit chain. 

The custom gas token allows Xai Gaming to pay the gas on behalf of users through a gas subsidy contract. 

This significantly reduces friction for end users, as explained by Soban “Soby” Saqib, co-founder of Ex Populus, partner of Xai Gaming.

Blockchain projects like Caldera and Celestia are also expected to be among those who will immediately leverage custom gas tokens on Arbitrum, according to Arbitrum itself.

More news for Arbitrum: Curve Finance launches the crvUSD Pool 

Curve Finance, one of the protagonists in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, has recently announced the debut of its crvUSD pool on the Arbitrum network. 

This significant step forward marks the expansion of Curve into one of the fastest-growing Layer 2 solutions in the blockchain landscape.

The introduction of the crvUSD pool on Arbitrum represents a strategic commitment by Curve to improve liquidity and user experience in the DeFi ecosystem.

Arbitrum, known for its scalability and transactional efficiency, provides the ideal environment for this new pool, promising users faster transactions and lower fees, addressing the common challenges of the Ethereum mainnet.

In addition to the launch of the crvUSD pool, Curve is currently involved in a voting process Gauge, a crucial aspect of Curve’s decentralized governance model. 

This voting mechanism allows token holders to influence the allocation of rewards for liquidity mining, ensuring that the distribution is aligned with the community’s preferences. 

The voting process represents a key opportunity for CRV token holders to actively participate in the platform’s decision-making, highlighting Curve’s democratic approach to community governance in the DeFi world.

Consolidated domain and positive performance in 2024 for Arbitrum 

Recent key data consistently confirm that Arbitrum is among the assets with the best performance in the current year. In particular, L2 Beats metrics have recently recorded a significant increase in Arbitrum’s Total Value Locked (TVL).

The in-depth analysis of the data reveals that the current TVL represents an all-time high both for the Arbitrum network and for the broader category of Layer 2 solutions.

Currently, the TVL has reached 10.4 billion dollars, recording a significant increase of 16%. 

In addition, the aggregated TVL across different networks has exceeded 21 billion dollars, attributable to the increase in both Arbitrum’s TVL and other networks, positioning Arbitrum with a significant market share of 49%.

An additional positive indicator that testifies to the dynamism is the trading volume on Arbitrum, as reported by DefiLlama. 

The volume of trades has grown by over 400 million dollars and, at the moment, it has exceeded 900 million dollars, approaching the billion-dollar threshold.

It is also noted that the volume had previously exceeded one billion dollars on December 22, a result achieved only twice in the previous nine months. The last positive trend within this range dates back to around April 2023.

Arbitrum has witnessed a remarkable increase in trading volume, with a particularly significant increase in the last three days. 

The analysis of the volume chart on Santiment shows that the ARB volume was about 1.3 billion dollars on January 2nd. However, at the moment it has almost doubled, reaching over 2 billion dollars.