ChainNews Research Director Pan Zhixiong: Organizing the Ethereum L2 Financing Situation, Hoping Airdrop Recipients will Deeply Utilize the Opportunity

The well-known Chinese cryptocurrency media ChainNews has been unable to reopen its website due to regulatory factors in China. However, its updates can still be found on Telegram and Twitter. ChainNews' Research Director, Pan Zhixiong, continues to share the latest information on his personal Twitter account, including an overview of the current state of Ethereum L2 financing.

Ethereum L2 Financing Situation

Pan Zhixiong stated that the overall valuation of current Ethereum L2 project financing is between 10 and 20 billion USD. In terms of the two approaches of zk-rollup and optimistic-rollup solutions, a16z, Paradigm, and Alameda have invested in at least one project on both sides, showing relatively diversified investments without a clear indication of which solution has stronger capital backing.

Furthermore, he also summarized the financing situations of different projects in the two camps:

zk-rollup

• Matter Labs, the developer of zkSync, recently raised 50 million USD with investors including a16z, Placeholder, Dragonfly, 1kx, ConsenSys.
• StarkWare recently raised 50 million USD with a valuation of 20 billion USD, with investors including Sequoia, Paradigm, 3AC, Alameda, Founders Fund, etc.
• Aztec, no public financing information available this year.

optimistic-rollup

• Offchain Labs, the developer of Arbitrum, raised a total of 120 million USD this year with a valuation of 12 billion USD, with investors including Polychain, Ribbit, Pantera, Alameda, etc.
• Optimism completed a 25 million USD financing earlier this year with investors including a16z, Paradigm.
• Fuel Labs, less public information available.

Recent Outlook of L2 Projects

Pan Zhixiong stated that overall, the progress of the zk-rollup system is expected to be about a year slower than optimistic-rollup, hence the ecosystem's support will take longer. However, there are still events to look forward to by the end of this year:

• The public test version of StarkNet will be deployed to the mainnet.
• Whether zkSync 2.0 can release its first mainnet version.

He also pointed out that platforms adopting StarkEx and StarkNet developed by StarkWare have already achieved high total circulating market values, but they may not necessarily migrate to StarkNet:

• dydx: 12 billion USD or more.
• DeversiFi: 400 million USD.
• Immutable: 10 billion USD or more.
• Sorare: Not disclosed.

Interested in Airdrops on L2?

Pan Zhixiong mentioned that while everyone expects high-valuation protocols to airdrop early users, considering ParaSwap's strict airdrop policy, it has opened up a new generation of airdrop methods. He suggested that users should truly use and experience these new L2 protocols and applications, rather than mindlessly conducting regular transactions. Additionally, the waiting period for these projects' airdrops may be as long as that of ENS, as these protocols are not short of funding for operations.

Want to Learn More about L2 Fundamentals?

Pan Zhixiong's article: "Research Director Pan Zhixiong: Plasma and Rollup are the Core of Ethereum Layer 2 Expansion ZK, Optimistic."

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