Layer 2 (L2)

OKB began with a one-billion-token design, shed 700 million unissued units, split chain duties with OKT, and later became X Layer's gas asset with a stated 21 million supply. The current implementation lacks mint and burn methods, but its Ethereum proxy remains upgradeable and OKX's fee-benefit descriptions vary by market and date.

MNT grew from BitDAO’s 2023 one-brand vote into the gas and governance asset of Mantle Network. The 1:1 conversion, treasury burn, ZK-rollup upgrades and mETH products are related chapters, but they confer different rights and depend on different administrators.

ARB is the delegated governance token for Arbitrum One and Nova, but it neither pays their gas nor runs their sequencers. Its history is a map of divided authority among the DAO, Foundation, validators, upgrade executors and a 9-of-12 Security Council.

Stacks is a separate smart-contract chain anchored to Bitcoin through Proof of Transfer. STX pays gas, miner rewards and Stacking participation; it is neither BTC nor a redemption claim on the signer-controlled BTC behind sBTC.

Optimism grew from OP Mainnet into the OP Stack and Superchain: shared code, upgrades, governance and chain revenue. OP votes and now sits beside a treasury buyback program, but it does not pay gas or grant a fixed share of fees; fault proofs remain bounded by a single sequencer and fast upgrade keys.

Starknet is a general-purpose Ethereum validity rollup whose Cairo execution is proven with STARKs and settled through Ethereum contracts. It is separate from StarkEx, StarkWare’s application-specific scaling service. STRK now pays all Starknet transaction fees, supports delegation and phase-2 validator attestation, and carries protocol voting power; it is not equity or a claim on StarkWare or the Foundation. The network has distributed sequencing components and a live S-two prover, but block production, proving and upgrade control have not yet reached the permissionless end state described in its roadmap.

IMX outlived the chain that gave it a name. Immutable X stopped writes in February 2026, while the fully minted 2-billion-cap Ethereum token became native gas on Immutable Chain; staking, bridge passage, Passport policy and corporate rights still sit in separate trust systems.

Derive grew from Lyra's options AMM into a three-part derivatives system: an OP Stack rollup, onchain margin protocol, and company-operated orderbook. DRV replaced LYRA at 1:1 and becomes governance weight only through stDRV; it is not equity or a withdrawal claim. A centralized matcher, permissioned sequencer deployment, external oracle data, bridges and upgrade paths remain distinct control surfaces.

ZKsync developed from Lite’s Ethereum payments into Era and a network of public and permissioned chains. Its ZK token governs upgrades and token programs; Lite’s 2026 closure, a paused staking pilot and the planned EraVM transition show how much remains in motion.

SOON detaches SVM execution for Ethereum, BNB and Base rollups, then reconnects it through roots, Hyperlane and LayerZero. Its multi-chain token, inflation, multisigs, governance and legal issuer reveal where control remains.

At 23:51 UTC on December 6, 2025—December 7 in Abu Dhabi—the public ADI repository removed its mint and burn functions. The foundation announced the token on December 8. The reviewed V2 left 999,999,999 units and the route from Ethereum to gas on ADI Chain, while a Safe requiring two of three signatures retained authority to replace the implementation.

xDAI is Gnosis Chain's native 18-decimal gas asset, minted and burned by a bridge now backed through Ethereum USDS/DAI flows. It is separate from GNO, the 1-GNO-per-validator staking asset, and its convertibility depends on 4-of-7 bridge validators plus an upgradeable 8-of-15 governor system.

Linea began as Consensys' zkEVM rollup and later added LINEA, a token that shares L2 revenue with ETH burns but does not pay gas or vote on-chain. Its 2025 design replaced an earlier holder-governance promise with Consortium stewardship.

CELO began as the reserve, staking and governance asset of a mobile-first payments chain. Celo preserved that history and every account balance when it became an Ethereum L2 in March 2025; today CELO is native gas and an ERC-20-compatible balance, while stablecoins and rollup operations follow separate control paths.

Yaoqi Jia’s AltLayer began with disposable rollups for short bursts of demand, then proposed VITAL, MACH and SQUAD to add restaked security to application chains. MACH reached mainnet deployments and ALT gained staking uses, but operators, MACH administrators and the token-owner Safe still hold distinct powers. By 2026 the company had also moved into on-chain AI agents.

MegaETH delayed MEGA until ten incubated applications met a launch KPI. Less than three months after the token went live, the network ended the accelerator because its successes were leaving—a sharp test of what an app count can prove.