Best Layer 2 Crypto Projects In 2025

 In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at the best Layer 2 crypto projects to watch in 2025. This will expose you to strong potential coins and help you diversify your holdings. Our team of experts followed Coingape’s data-driven and rigorous evaluation criteria to bring you a trusted final list of top Layer 2 coins. 

Mantle (MNT) is an EVM-compatible Ethereum L2 solution using a modular architecture to optimize scalability and interoperability. With 4,000 TPS and a market cap of over $1 billion, Mantle supports Web3 applications, particularly in gaming and metaverse projects. According to the Mantle whitepaper, its cross-chain messaging protocol enables seamless asset transfers, boosting DeFi adoption.

Mantle’s $204.83 million in TVL reflects its growing ecosystem of over 250 dApps.

Arbitrum is an Ethereum layer-2 solution utilizing optimistic rollups to enhance transaction efficiency. By decentralizing transaction execution from the mainnet, it enables users to transact at significantly reduced costs and speeds. According to the platform’s whitepaper, optimistic rollups aggregate transactions and process computations off-chain, decreasing transaction fees. Arbitrum achieves transaction speeds up to 10 times faster than Ethereum, with a peak throughput of 40,000 TPS and potential gas savings of up to 95%. 

As of August 2025, its TVL is $3 billion, according to Defilama. The platform is EVM compatible, facilitating easy migration for developers. Arbitrum emphasizes security through a challenge mechanism to combat fraud and is community-driven, supporting gaming, NFT marketplaces,  and DeFi protocols, with ARB token use for governance and fees.

Optimism utilizes off-chain transactions that are sent back to Ethereum mainnet, reducing network load for faster, cheaper fees. Its EVM compatibility allows easy integration of existing DApps. Developers favor Optimism for scalability and lower costs. It features an integrated challenge mechanism to prevent fraudulent transactions, which users can contest.

Optimistic Rollups ensure high throughput and maintain Ethereum’s security and decentralization. With a transaction speed of 713 TPS, it operates up to 26 times faster than Ethereum. As per the platform’s whitepaper OP token serves for staking, fees, and governance, showing a 25% increase in value over the past year.

Immutable X is a Layer 2 scaling solution for NFT assets on Ethereum, featuring a distinct trading layer with nearly instant settlement, zero gas fees, and high throughput. Utilizing ZK-Rollups, it achieves over 4,000 TPS with low fees while maintaining a solid infrastructure via the Ethereum mainnet. The native coin, IMX, serves multiple functions including governance, fees, and staking. With no transaction costs, it benefits NFT creators and traders, reducing gas transactions on Ethereum.

Immutable X also allows NFT minting, trading, and transferring efficiently because of its high throughput capacity, with a TVL of $25.2 million

Starknet is a layer 2 scaling solution using zero-knowledge (zk) rollups, enhancing privacy and security. Starknet verifies transactions using math proofs without showing related data, which makes it safer than regular blockchains. Zk-proofs keep transactions secure and unchangeable boosting Ethereum’s safety. Starknet can handle complex smart contracts and decentralized apps meeting the rising need for dApps.

Starknet addresses critical scaling and privacy concerns in the blockchain space, hitting a peak of 857 TPS. The platform includes Account Abstraction for improved user experience, positioning Starknet as a valuable asset for future DeFi projects in a bull market.

zkSync (ZK) boosts Ethereum scalability via zero-knowledge rollups, increasing transaction speeds and lowering costs while preserving Ethereum’s fundamental principles. This Layer-2 solution handles numerous transactions off-chain, reducing the mainnet’s processing burden for quicker, more affordable transactions. Its design guarantees data integrity despite higher throughput. zkSync delivers a smooth user experience by connecting with multiple platforms, encouraging broad adoption without necessitating users to understand intricate details.

Furthermore, zkSync emphasizes privacy through sophisticated cryptographic techniques to maintain the confidentiality of transaction information, ensuring a balance between privacy and the necessary transparency inherent in blockchain technology. The zkSync Era aims to fully realize Ethereum’s capabilities. Its goal is to achieve over 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) in 2025, reducing transaction fees to as low as $0.0001.

Polygon consists of Ethereum-based protocols that aim to improve blockchain performance and cut costs. It offers scaling solutions like Plasma chains, zkRollup, and Optimistic Rollup. Plasma provides off-chain options similar to the Lightning Network, which reduces the load on the ETH mainnet and lowers transaction fees. The zkRollup and Optimistic Rollup bundle transactions to process them.

Polygon’s dual-layer method allows it to handle about 65,000 transactions each second, tackling Ethereum’s scaling issues. Also, its EVM compatibility lets developers move dApps from Ethereum, saving them time and money. Polygon focuses on security and decentralization making it appealing to developers who want to build on Ethereum.

Dymension provides a scalable ecosystem for blockchain applications using optimistic and zk-rollups, ensuring high transaction scalability and security. Optimistic rollups enable fast off-chain transactions, while zk-rollups offer cryptographic proof for privacy. This dual approach allows Dymension to handle numerous transactions effectively, catering to the growing blockchain marketplace. It records a TVL of around $3.33m, with a market cap approaching 100 million. 

With robust security measures against fraud, Dymension merges the advantages of both rollup types to cater to speed and security demands, particularly in the growing decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Additionally, it supports Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) and allows developers to customize RollApps.  Dymension is known to maintain an average transaction time of 0.2 seconds with a maximum TPS of about 20,000.

Before diving into Layer 2 solutions, it’s important to understand Layer 1 blockchains, the main networks they rely on. Let’s take a closer look.

What Are Layer 1 Chains?

Layer 1 refers to the main blockchain architecture or the base layer, with Bitcoin and Ethereum chains as perfect examples. They are behind the fundamental operations of the network, handling security, consensus mechanisms, and transaction validation, among others.

Although Layer 1 crypto projects like Bitcoin are pretty solid in their security, they struggle with scalability. This results in slower transaction times and users paying more in fees, especially during peak periods of high demand. Scalability problems affect the adoption of these projects, and their cases, such as microtransactions.

Now, let’s look at how layer 2 solves these challenges.

What Are Layer 2 Crypto Projects?

Layer 2 platforms exist on top of layer 1 blockchains to make them more efficient and scalable. Layer 2 platforms process transactions off-chain and send the final data back to the main blockchain. This way, they reduce network congestion and transaction costs.

Layer2 solutions use common technologies such as side chains, rollups, and state channels to enable faster transaction speed and lower transaction fees. They also leverage the decentralization and security of layer 1. These L2s help in the adoption and practical use cases of L1s. Some of the top layer 3 projects are working towards making transaction speeds faster by making L2 networks even more scalable.

When selecting the best Layer 2 blockchain projects, we took a close look at Layer 2 projects based on real-world usefulness and technical strength. Here’s what we focused on:

Why This Matters

This approach enabled us to finalize our best Layer 2 projects list that are technically impressive, have solid roadmaps, real use cases, and strong community support.

Choosing the best layer 2 crypto platform would depend on your needs. You’d have to factor in needs such as security, scalability, user adoption, and fees. However, Arbitrum stands out with its super-low fees, and Loopring for its comprehensive way of scaling Ethereum, thus making it the best layer 2 crypto coin. Polygon’s developer-friendly environment and broad adoption are good reasons to choose it. Polygon is also EMV-compatible, meaning you can easily interact with other Ethereum apps.