Introduction

The Optimism protocol is a Layer2 protocol that is intended to help Ethereum users speed up and pay fewer fees for transactions on the Ethereum network.

In order to use the protocol, Ethereum users must pass their tokens to the Optimism platform to start enjoying its benefits. The method of moving a chain from Layer1 to Layer2 is called bridging.

Optimism uses its own bridge, even though there are other entities dedicated to it.

Methodology

For this reason, the purpose of this dashboard is to analyse the movements of the ETH token and the USDT, USDC and TUSD stablecoins, one of the most used token on Optimism, from one platform to another. In other words, the metrics we are going to analyse for both, ETH and stablecoin tokens are as follows:

• Bridging transactions to and from Optimism
• Users bridging to and from Optimism
• Bridged volume to and from Optimism
• Cumulative net volume bridged to Optimism

In the case of the Ethereum, we can see similar charts regarding number of weekly bridges and weekly users bridging both into Optimism and from Optimism to Ethereum. From the beginning until the end, it seems that more users and more bridges are coming to Optimism from Ethereum than viceversa. Another important think is that the highest activity was registered during the end of 2021. However, since the start of 2022, the bridging activity decreased considerably and the downtrend has been more clear since July. In October, the activity is starting to increase again.

Finally, looking at the volume we can see that in the major of the days more volume goes from Ethereum to Optimism rather than from Optimism to Ethereum. However, in January 10th and Agust 15th and September 5th more volume exited Optimism. However, the same amount was recovered the day before or after with a huge difference in terms of volume coming to Optimism. In fact, if we take a look at the fourth and last chart, we can see how the net volume going from Ethereum to Optimism has been increasing over time, reaching now the highest values above 250k ETH.

Key insights

• From the beginning until the end, it seems that more users and more bridges are coming to Optimism from Ethereum than viceversa for ETH token. The same is occuring for the stablecoins selected.
• The highest ETH activity was registered during the end of 2021. However, since the start of 2022, the bridging activity decreased considerably and the downtrend has been more clear since July. Something similar is occuring with USDT and USDC. For TUSD, the activity started to appear more consistenly on mid September 2022.
• Currently, there are more ETH volume bridged from Optimism to Ethereum. The same occurs with the stablecoins.
• The general activity increased considerably in August and seems that now, it is remaining above the median.

ETH bridge analysis

USDT bridge analysis

In the case of the USDT, we can see similar charts regarding number of weekly bridges and weekly users bridging both into Optimism and from Optimism to Ethereum. From the beginning until the end, it seems that more users and more bridges are coming to Optimism from Ethereum than viceversa. Another important think is that the highest activity was registered during the end of 2021. However, since the start of 2022, the bridging activity decreased considerably and the downtrend has been more clear since July. In contract to ETH activity, in this case, the amount has been stable since the increase registered on July.

Finally, looking at the volume we can see that in the major of the days more volume goes from Ethereum to Optimism rather than from Optimism to Ethereum. However, in November 8th and September 26th more volume exited Optimism. However, the same amount was recovered the day before or after with a huge difference in terms of volume coming to Optimism. In fact, if we take a look at the fourth and last chart, we can see how the net volume going from Ethereum to Optimism has been increasing over time, reaching now the highest values above 100M USDT.

USDC bridge analysis

In the case of the USDC, we can see similar charts regarding number of weekly bridges and weekly users bridging both into Optimism and from Optimism to Ethereum. From the beginning until the end, it seems that more users and more bridges are coming to Optimism from Ethereum than viceversa. Another important think is that the highest activity was registered during the end of 2021 but similar activity was registered from July to September 2022. However, since August 2022, the activity has dropped.

Finally, looking at the volume we can see that in the major of the days more volume goes from Ethereum to Optimism rather than from Optimism to Ethereum. However, it seems that during the last months, the amount bridged from Optimism to Ethereum increased, but the volume from Ethereum to Optimism has also increased. In fact, if we take a look at the fourth and last chart, we can see how the net volume going from Ethereum to Optimism has been increasing over time, reaching a highest number of more than 700M USDC. The current net volume is around 550M USDC.

TUSD bridge analysis

To finish the analysis, we will review the inflows and outflows of TUSD. In this case, the activity is so lower in comparison to the other stablecoins. Basically, the activity has not been constant until mid September 2022. However, from that point, the activity decreased again. The number of bridges and bridgers has been similar over time.

In the case of volume, we have seen how suddenly increased on September 19th week reaching more than 2M of TUSD. But now, the volume is at around 0.5M TUSD. Tracking the cumulative net volume bridge to Optimism, we can see how the bubbles started to appear on September because the previous amounts were too lows. The current cumulative net volume is reaching now the 4M TUSD.