What is Arbitrum?
Arbitrum is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution that uses optimistic rollups to increase transaction throughput and reduce costs. In July 2026, the ecosystem around it was marked by competitive dynamics with Base and a debate over its security posture.
Release history
- Jul 2026 – David Hoffman noted that Ethereum gets 0.15% for data availability from rollups like Arbitrum.
- Jul 2026 – On July 10, Robin Hood chain flipped Base in user operations per second, with 117 ops/sec vs 93 on Base, per David Hoffman.
- Jul 2026 – Ryan Sean Adams argued that a critical bug in Arbitrum should be treated as an Ethereum vulnerability, triggering an L1 fork.
- Jul 2026 – An unnamed speaker identified Base and Arbitrum as their real competition.
- Jul 2026 – Santiago Santos reported that the total value locked in all other Ethereum is back to roughly $5 billion, a level last seen in 2023.
In the discourse
Attributed discussion of Arbitrum.
Ethereum earns only 0.15% of L2 revenue for data availability, roughly $1,200 out of $816,000 generated by Robin Hood chain via Arbitrum.
“Ethereum gets 0.15% for data availability.”David Hoffman · 17 Jul 2026
Robin Hood chain, built on Arbitrum, surpassed Base in user operations per second and is driving ETH price sentiment, making it a key L2 to monitor in 2026.
“Robin Hood chain usage flipped base on July 10th, so six days ago from the time of recording, user operations per second, that's like a metric, refined metric for measuring usage basically, from layer 2B, 117 user operations per second on Robin Hood chain, where just 93 on base.”David Hoffman · 17 Jul 2026
A proposal argues Ethereum should treat critical bugs in its largest L2s (Arbitrum, Base, Robin Hood chain) as L1 vulnerabilities triggering an L1 fork, in exchange for those L2s paying 10 to 20% rent to ETH holders.
“He says Ethereum should adopt its largest roll-ups in the sense that a critical bug in arbitum base or Robin Hood chain should be treated as an Ethereum vulnerability and trigger an L1 fork just like an L1 bug would.”Ryan Sean Adams · 17 Jul 2026
Total TVL across all Ethereum L2s excluding Arbitrum has fallen back to roughly $5 billion, a level last seen in 2023.
“The total value the TVL lot in all other Ethereum is back to roughly 5 billion. The last time we saw that was 2023.”Santiago Santos · 31 Jul 2026
The real competition for Bitcoin L2s is Base and Arbitrum, not other Bitcoin L2s.
“I think our real competition honestly is bass and arc and tempo.”<UNKNOWN> · 20 Jul 2026