Ethereum scaling solutions Optimism (OP) and Arbitrum (ARB) are leading the digital asset space being the only full-Ethereum Virtual Machine rollups to reach the “Stage 1” of decentralization. The stages were noted by Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin who believes that all the developers should aim to achieve increased decentralization by the end of the year.

On the other hand, ZK-EVM rollups like Starknet have not yet reached the first stage of decentralization. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed on X that he hopes to see a ZK-EVM rollup achieve the same level of success as Arbitrum and Optimism.

In a blog post published shortly after the Dencun upgrade, which significantly reduced fees for Layer 2 rollups, the Ethereum co-founder argued that Ethereum must maintain strict standards to ensure protocols continue to develop sustainably. He added:

”By the end of the year, I think our standards should increase and we should only treat a project as a rollup if it has actually reached at least stage 1.”

According to Buterin, a Layer 2 network in Stage 1 is where a Layer 2 prioritizes efficient security and scaling features but lacks decentralization; full decentralization is achieved in Stage 2.

As per L2Beat, Arbitrum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has dropped 17% in the past 24 hours and currently stands at $14.33  billion. On the other hand, the TVL of Optimism stands at $5.36 billion, down 16.38%. The native tokens of the protocols, OP and ARB, are up 12.47% and 5.95%, respectively and are trading at $1.27 and $0.5063, respectively.

The crypto market crash over the weekend has had a significant impact on OP, ARB, alongside leading altcoins and cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ether. However, as per CoinMarketCap, the market is close to the $2 trillion level, up 3.87% in the past 24 hours.