Ethereum R1 is a new donation-funded, tokenless Layer 2 rollup designed to offer a decentralized, censorship-resistant, and governance-minimized scaling solution for Ethereum

The S&P 500 rose 0.63% Thursday, boosted by strong Meta and Microsoft earnings, but futures slipped Friday as investors awaited the April jobs report and weighed Apple and Amazon tariff concerns. Gold fell to $3,235 as easing trade tensions cut safe-haven demand; markets await US jobs data for rate cut signals. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, rose 2.19%, with Bitcoin and Ether up 2.57% and 2.60%, respectively in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is AR, which gained 16.8% following CloneX's successful migration to Arweave, sponsored by ArDrive.

Arweave (AR), founded in 2017, is a decentralized network for permanent data storage, using blockweave and Proof of Access to ensure long-term accessibility. It offers 200-year storage for a one-time fee, incentivized by AR tokens for miners. The system connects blocks efficiently to preserve and retrieve data, aiming to create a lasting digital knowledge repository. CloneX has successfully 

 to Arweave for permanent storage, with the support of ArDrive, which sponsored the migration of 100 GB of data. The process is nearly complete, with only Animus remaining to undergo decentralization.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

 is a new donation-funded, tokenless Layer 2 rollup designed to offer a decentralized, censorship-resistant, and governance-minimized scaling solution for Ethereum. Built on open-source code and the Nethermind Surge stack, it emphasizes credible neutrality, public good funding (with all fees burned after 2030), and infrastructure that remains free from VC control or centralized dependencies.

Yesterday, BTC spot ETFs saw $71.1M in total inflows, with $16M from GBTC and $55.1M from other ETFs.

 $BOOP tokens to active Solana memecoin traders and creators who promote memecoins or Solana dapps on X. To claim, users must connect their Solana wallet or X account and launch a free token. The airdrop arrives in 30 days, but growing the token’s market cap can accelerate the reward.

Beginner

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Ethereum R1 offers a decentralized rollup solution for Ethereum

This article dives into Bitcoin liquid staking protocol Lombard Finance, how LBTC works and how you can stake LBTC through Bybit Web3.

Bitcoin stands as the undisputed giant of the cryptocurrency space, commanding the largest market capitalization. Yet, much of its potential remains untapped, often sitting idle as a store of value rather than actively participating in the thriving 

 ecosystem. Lombard Finance aims to change this narrative by unlocking Bitcoin's utility and integrating it seamlessly into DeFi.

Lombard is built upon Babylon, the innovative Bitcoin staking protocol, and is incubated by Polychain Capital. Lombard’s flagship product, 

 (LST) for BTC. This article explores what Lombard Finance is and how LBTC works, and describes the Lombard ecosystem and how you can stake LBTC through Bybit Web3.

 is a liquid staking protocol that focuses on transforming 

's role in the digital economy. Its core mission is to evolve BTC from simply being a store of value — also viewed as 

 — into a productive asset that actively generates yield and participates within DeFi. Currently, a significant portion of Bitcoin's

 sits idle, lacking the native staking capabilities or cross-chain composability seen with assets such as 

Lombard Finance addresses this shortcoming by building on top of 

, a protocol that supports BTC staking without needing 

 or custodians. Babylon allows Bitcoin's economic weight to secure other 

 (PoS) chains and applications, creating a new yield source for holders. Lombard leverages this foundation to offer LBTC, making staked BTC liquid and usable across the DeFi market.

Lombard’s goal is ambitious: to channel Bitcoin's vast liquidity into DeFi. This could potentially double the ecosystem's 

 (TVL) if even a fraction of available BTC is introduced. Lombard believes this integration will catalyze significant growth and create more sustainable market dynamics by making BTC a core, yield-bearing primitive within DeFi.

Founders and investors of Lombard Finance

Lombard Finance was founded in April 2024 by a team with deep expertise within DeFi, drawing talent from established crypto projects like Polychain, Babylon, Argent, Coinbase and Maple. This collective experience underpins the protocol's design and strategic direction.

The project was notably incubated by Polychain Capital, a prominent crypto investment firm that also led Lombard's $16 million seed funding round (which was 

 in July 2024). This round saw participation from a wide array of significant players in the crypto space — including Babylon, dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, HTX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, Nomad Capital, OKX Ventures and Robot Ventures — thus highlighting broad industry confidence in Lombard's vision. Strategic partnerships and contributions from exchanges like

 and Bitget are further bolstering its distribution and liquidity aggregation efforts.

LBTC is Lombard Finance's flagship product — a liquid staking token (LST) that represents Bitcoin staked through the Babylon protocol. Designed as a universal liquid BTC standard, LBTC is fully backed 1:1 by native Bitcoin, ensuring its value is directly tied to the underlying asset.

The token is yield-bearing, capturing rewards generated from securing PoS networks via Babylon staking. Crucially, LBTC remains liquid, meaning holders can freely use it across various DeFi applications — such as 

 and automated vaults — without sacrificing their underlying staked positions or associated yield.

LBTC is also designed for cross-chain compatibility, natively minted on supported blockchains like Ethereum, Base and Sui and using secure infrastructure [such as 

]. This avoids the risks associated with traditional bridging or wrapping methods, thus aiming to provide a more secure and seamless way to utilize Bitcoin across the multichain DeFi ecosystem.

Lombard Finance simplifies the process of putting Bitcoin to work within DeFi through its LBTC token. The mechanism is designed with security and user experience in mind, leveraging the Babylon protocol and a robust Security Consortium.

The core benefit of LBTC lies in its ability to unlock multiple layers of value simultaneously. Holders earn native yield from Babylon staking, potentially accrue additional rewards (such as Lombard Lux points) and gain access to diverse DeFi yield opportunities, all while maintaining the liquidity of their Bitcoin position. This transforms BTC from a static asset into a dynamic, yield-generating component of the DeFi ecosystem.

Lombard Finance is actively building a wide LBTC ecosystem that already boasts over 75 DeFi integrations. Security is foundational, anchored by the 14-member Security Consortium (including prominent names like Galaxy and OKX Ventures) and validating all critical operations alongside audits and bug bounties.

Core infrastructure relies both on Babylon for staking, and on the Chainlink CCIP for secure cross-chain movement, with EigenLayer integration 

. LBTC integrates with leading DeFi applications across lending platforms (e.g., 

) and automated vaults. The platform supports multiple blockchains (including Ethereum, Base, Sui, BNB Chain) and 

 (L2s), positioning LBTC as a versatile cross-chain asset.

Here's how you can stake BTC on Lombard and use LBTC in DeFi and automated vaults.

Lombard Finance (via its LBTC token) offers a compelling way for Bitcoin holders to put their assets into use, earn yield via Babylon staking and gain exposure to the expansive DeFi ecosystem — all while maintaining liquidity. Incubated by Polychain Capital and supported by a robust consortium and growing partner network, Lombard is positioning LBTC as a secure and versatile liquid Bitcoin standard.

It’s easy to participate in the Lombard ecosystem through 

, you can utilize your Bybit Web3 Seed Phrase Wallet to stake BTC and mint 

, Lombard's vault token that represents deposits in automated yield strategies. This provides you with a seamless gateway to access Bitcoin liquid staking and DeFi yields.

Ready to unlock your Bitcoin's potential? 

Intermediate

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Lombard Finance: Polychain-backed Bitcoin liquid staking protocol

The cryptocurrency market has entered a phase reminiscent of past altcoin seasons, primarily driven by Bitcoin's recent rebound to the $94K–$96K range. 

Altcoin season might have come with reviveding speculation 

The cryptocurrency market has entered a phase reminiscent of past altcoin seasons, primarily driven by Bitcoin's recent rebound to the $94K–$96K range. This resurgence has sparked renewed interest among retail traders, shifting focus from Bitcoin to smaller, more speculative altcoins. The overall market saw a 10% increase in value during the final eight days of April, contrasting with Bitcoin's 7% gain. This trend indicates a growing appetite for risk among investors, particularly in meme coins, which have seen a surge in social media discussions.

However, caution is warranted as elevated crowd enthusiasm often precedes market corrections. Historical patterns suggest that when buzzwords like "altseason" are dominating discussions, it may signal an impending price exhaustion. The current market dynamics reflect a shift toward speculative investments, raising concerns about the sustainability of this enthusiasm.

Bitcoin's bullish sentiment substantially improves

Bitcoin's position as the leading cryptocurrency has remained steady, with discussions around its price fluctuating significantly. Following a period of pessimism, when predictions dipped as low as $10K–$69K, sentiment shifted dramatically with the price recovery. Now, optimistic projections of $100K–$159K are dominating conversations, indicating a reversal in trader sentiment.

Despite Bitcoin's consistent presence in market discussions (approximately 25% of asset topics), the ratio of bullish-to-bearish commentary has grown increasingly favorable. This suggests a growing confidence among traders bolstered by Bitcoin's recent performance. However, it’s essential to monitor whether this bullish sentiment translates into sustained investment, or if it leads to overconfidence that may trigger a market pullback.

Ethere, once a robust contender in the altcoin arena, has struggled to regain retail investor confidence despite recent bullish commentary and promises of innovation from co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Its social media presence has dwindled to about 6–7% of discussions, a significant drop from previous years. This decline highlights the challenges Ethereum faces in re-establishing itself as a go-to investment in a market increasingly dominated by speculative assets.

Conversely, XRP has seen a notable increase in optimism surrounding ETF approvals, with expectations rising to 85%. This shift reflects a broader trend of institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, potentially paving the way for significant capital inflows. Meanwhile, Dogecoin's potential ETF listings have sparked renewed interest, transforming its image from that of a meme coin to a legitimate investment option. The growing dialogue surrounding institutional adoption of Dogecoin and XRP indicates a pivotal moment for these assets, suggesting they may play critical roles in the evolving cryptocurrency landscape.

Advanced

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Bybit x Santiment social sentiment report: Altcoin sentiment recovers despite Bitcoin’s resilience

Bybit Spread Trading allows traders to simultaneously buy and sell two related instruments in order to hedge risk or profit from price discrepancies. Read more.

Whether markets are flying high or wobbling unpredictably, one thing remains true: traders are always looking for smarter ways to 

 and find profit opportunities. That’s where Bybit Spread Trading comes in. This feature is tailor-made for those who want to go beyond basic buy/sell plays and start taking advantage of price discrepancies between related instruments. In this guide, we’ll walk through exactly how Bybit Spread Trading works, why it matters and how you can start using it today, whether you’re 

is a newly launched Bybit feature that allows users to simultaneously buy and sell two related instruments — such as Spot, Perpetual or Expiry contracts with different settlement dates — in order to hedge risk or profit from price discrepancies.

This type of trading strategy is popular among institutional and professional traders because it enables more precise, controlled market exposure. However, with Bybit’s interface, the barrier to entry is significantly lowered, opening the door for individual traders to tap with just a few clicks into a powerful set of tools.

At its core, Spread Trading on Bybit is about executing what’s called a combo trade. This means entering two positions at once: one long, one short. These positions are taken on related instruments, such as a BTC Spot trade and a BTC Perpetual contract, with the idea that their prices will either converge or diverge in a way that benefits your position.

When you place a buy combo, you’re buying the instrument with the longer expiration (the “far leg”) and selling the one that expires sooner (the “near leg”). 

A sell combo is the reverse: selling the far leg and buying the near leg. The profit (or loss) comes from how the spread between these two instruments shifts over time.

For example, if you believe the spread between a Perpetual and a Quarterly Futures contract will widen, you can buy the combo. If the spread increases after your entry, that movement becomes your profit. Bybit calculates your 

 prices automatically, based on the mark prices and your defined “order price,” so there’s no need to manually crunch the numbers.

Perhaps the most important feature here is atomic execution. This ensures both sides of your combo trade are filled together, in equal quantities, or the trade doesn’t go through at all. It removes “leg risk,” which is the danger of getting filled on one side of the trade, but not the other. In volatile markets, that alone can save you from an unwanted mess.

Spread Trading on Bybit currently supports combinations such as Spot and Perpetual, Spot and Expiry, Perpetual and Expiry, or even two Expiry contracts with different dates. This flexibility lets you build strategies that align with different market outlooks — bullish, bearish or neutral.

There’s a strong reason why Spread Trading is a go-to for many experienced traders: it allows for strategic plays that are more sophisticated than just guessing price direction. On Bybit, it’s not only powerful, but also convenient.

First, you get price certainty. Your spread is locked in at the price you specify. There’s no 

 between legs because the entry prices are automatically calculated and matched. You’re trading the spread, not the individual legs.

Secondly, the trading experience is smoother. Instead of placing two separate orders and manually trying to sync them, Bybit handles everything as a single transaction. You don’t have to worry about whether one leg gets filled and the other doesn’t — that risk is eliminated through atomic execution.

Third, this setup is a great hedge against volatility. By taking opposing positions on two related contracts, you reduce exposure to sharp price movements. Your P&L becomes more about the relative performance between contracts, rather than the market direction itself.

There’s also a strong cost advantage. Trading spreads on Bybit is significantly cheaper than doing it manually. You pay only half the trading fees you’d incur if you placed two individual trades on the order book. For high-volume or 

, that translates to meaningful savings over time.

Finally, it unlocks strategy flexibility. Whether you're 

 funding rates between Spot and Perpetual, doing 

 with different Futures contracts or taking advantage of price convergence before expiry, this platform gives you the tools to execute those ideas efficiently.

How to get started with Bybit Spread Trading 

Now that you have a better understanding of how Bybit Spread Trading works, let’s look into how to get started. Please note that you’ll need to have a Bybit account in order to proceed. If you don’t already have one, please check out our 

 for more information on how to create a Bybit account.

: Log in to your Bybit account and hover your cursor over the 

: The available spreads are organized in a grid, with each tile representing a unique combo. Choose your preferred combo to trade.

Tiles with a border around them signify that Spread Trading offers a better price. Hover over a tile for more details, or use the bar at the bottom of the grid to explore more options.

On the order placement page, set up your order with the following parameters:

to place your order. A pop-up window will appear for you to confirm your order details. Then, click on 

Congratulations — you’ve successfully placed an order!

You can view your Spread Trading orders from any trading page (Spread Trading, Spot and Futures), as they all share the same order data.

 to view your active orders. You’ll be able to view the combo, underlying asset, order price and more. 

If you would like to adjust your order parameters, you may click on the pencil icon under 

. To cancel your order, simply click on the order’s corresponding 

to view your completed orders. To view each order’s information on each leg, click on the order’s corresponding 

button. For additional insights, click on 

Spread trading isn’t for everyone — but if you’re someone who enjoys strategic trading, hedging or arbitrage, it’s a tool worth adding to your arsenal. It appeals to traders who are less interested in taking a directional bet, and more focused on capitalizing on inefficiencies in the market.

You don’t have to be a pro trader to benefit, either. The simplified execution and intuitive UI mean even intermediate users can explore advanced strategies without being overwhelmed. As long as you understand how spreads work, and how your P&L is affected by their movement, you’re already halfway there.

More importantly, in times of market uncertainty or low volatility — when price action feels sluggish — spread trading gives you an alternative way to profit. It keeps you in the game — even when momentum plays aren’t cutting it.

Bybit Spread Trading is a powerful tool that combines simplicity with sophistication. Whether you're looking to hedge, save on fees or experiment with 

 strategies, it offers a clean and user-friendly way to do so. With lower risk, lower costs and plenty of flexibility, Bybit Spread Trading is a smart move for any trader looking to level up their game — especially when markets get messy.

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Bybit Spread Trading: Smart strategies for market swings

Blockchain

Find out how ZK-rollups change the game by making transactions on the Ethereum mainchain more efficient and boosting overall scalability.

 and most blockchain projects. As the number of computationally intensive processes on the main blockchain increases, it clogs up the network and makes transactions slow and expensive. This hurts user experience and the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole. However, there may be a solution to the scalability problem for Ethereum: ZK-Rollups. This article will introduce you to ZK-Rollups and their benefits and limitations, and compare them to other scaling solutions while examining the best ZK-Rollup coins.

ZK-Rollups, or zero-knowledge rollups, are smart contracts that implement Ethereum 

scaling solutions for more efficient transaction processing on the blockchain.

To understand ZK-Rollups, you must have a foundational knowledge of rollups in general and why they hold the key to Ethereum Layer 2 scalability solutions. 

 on a secondary chain instead of the mainchain.

Rollups are among the most popular Layer 2 solutions because they provide a high throughput (

), without sacrificing security or decentralization. They achieve this by moving computationally intensive processes from the Ethereum 

 (Layer 1) to a sidechain (Layer 2). A rollup submits just enough data to the mainchain so that any participant can recreate the transaction states and detect invalidity or errors. Security isn’t compromised, since the transaction data is stored on the Ethereum mainchain.

ZK-Rollups bundle — or “roll up” — transaction data into a single block and process it off the mainchain to ease congestion. Network participants known as transactors and relayers handle this data, while verifying and submitting it to the mainnet.

Transactors post their transaction data — which consists of the indexed address, value, network fee and nonce (number only used once) — to the network. The indexed address uses fewer processing resources, and smart contracts link these addresses to 

, data structures that make sure data can’t be faked within a ZK-Rollup. A ZK-Rollup has two Merkle trees: one that records accounts, and another that stores transaction values. This also is an efficient use of processing power and time.

 create rollups by aggregating transactions. They create a 

, succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (ZK-SNARK) proof that validates transactions by comparing the blockchain state before and after. ZK-SNARK is a novel way of proving possession of specific information without revealing that information, and without the prover interacting with the verifier. The relayer forwards the results of the proof to the mainchain in a verifiable 

. Relayers must stake their crypto in a smart contract to incentivize honesty. Any fraudulent act attracts loss of the staked funds, discouraging bad actors and reducing the need for frequent disputes.

ZK-Rollups are a more efficient use of blockchain space, as they require less storage than traditional smart contracts since “zero knowledge” of the whole transaction’s data is needed. They only need validation proof, which makes validation quicker and cheaper because minimal data is included. The transactions have already been verified on the sidechain, which automatically validates them on the mainchain. Validating using a ZK-Rollup requires less data, which is quicker and less expensive than executing the transactions on the main Ethereum chain.

Cheaper and faster, ZK-Rollups offer some of the best Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions. Here are the primary advantages:

With its innovative approach, the ZK-Rollup protocol promises to be the future of Layer 2 scaling. Of course, it’s not without its drawbacks. ZK-Rollups present some limitations that will need to be overcome to achieve mainstream adoption:

ZK-Rollups vs. Other Layer 2 Scaling Solutions

Rollup protocols and other Layer 2 scaling solutions operate similarly, but each one is designed to serve specific use cases within the blockchain ecosystem. 

Some Layer 2 solutions may offer enhanced scalability and throughput by not posting any data to the Ethereum mainnet. However, this comes at the cost of reduced security. 

ZK-Rollups and optimistic rollups both achieve scalability improvements by moving transaction computation 

 and submitting highly compressed data to the Ethereum mainnet. Where they diverge is in their verification methods. ZK-Rollups validate transactions with complex cryptographic validity proofs, with each batch of transactions submitting a validity proof to the mainnet.

Optimistic rollups, on the other hand, believe all the transactions to be valid, and submit transaction batches without any calculations. This leads to a considerable uptick in scalability. However, there’s a challenge period in which anyone can question the validity of any transaction. If an anomaly is observed, the rollup runs a fraud proof (a check on transactions for possible fraud) using the data available on Layer 1. This challenge period wait causes more delays than with ZK-Rollups.

The optimistic rollup protocol incentivizes legitimate transactions by rewarding sequencers (parties responsible for storing and executing user transactions off-chain). Sequencers who submit fraudulent transactions to the Ethereum blockchain are punished by having their ETH stake slashed. 

Optimistic rollups can offer up to 100x increase in scalability, since they don’t need to carry out complex computations. However, the challenge period means their withdrawal period is far longer than that of ZK-Rollups. 

Another main difference is that optimistic rollups offer smart contract capabilities, which are challenging to implement with ZK-Rollups.

Sidechains are blockchains which are linked to the main blockchain, such as Ethereum via bridge contracts. They differ primarily from ZK-Rollups in that they receive data from the mainnet without needing to validate it. Instead, sidechains rely on a set of parties who control 

 contracts to confirm that the mainnet isn’t compromised and relay this information to the bridge. 

As a separate entity, sidechains have their own security properties and consensus mechanisms to process transactions. Like ZK-Rollups, sidechain transactions are often cheaper than mainchain transactions.

Meanwhile, for ZK-Rollups, sequencers give proof of the network state to the bridge contract, which has to validate the evidence and verify that the network hasn’t been compromised.

ZK-Rollups use Ethereum network security, and consume more resources as a result. This makes ZK-Rollups more expensive compared to a sidechain. 

The main difference between ZK-Rollups and sidechains is the method for storing transaction data. Whereas rollups batch transactions on Layer 2, and then submit them to the mainchain, sidechains create entirely separate chains — and then submit only the deposit and withdrawal to the mainchain. While ZK-Rollups can rely on the security of the mainchain, sidechains are responsible for their own. There’s also the chance with any sidechain that the operators creating new blocks could stop producing blocks, or limit withdrawals. As with mainchains, sidechains are also subject to 

Plasma chains are a scalability solution first proposed by 

 and Vitalik Buterin (co-founder of Ethereum).

Plasma is a Layer 2 scalability solution that offloads transactions to a Layer 2 sidechain (or “child chain”) and periodically submits newly created blocks back to the Ethereum mainnet. Plasma creates blocks through consensus mechanisms, similar to sidechains, but posts block roots to the mainchain, which act as a security layer. 

Similar to ZK-Rollups, plasma chain transaction costs are lower than on the mainchain. They also use fraud proofs to secure the plasma chain. These sets of checks and balances allow users to challenge the validity of their funds on the mainchain, creating comparable security to that of rollups.

ZK-Rollups and plasma chains both scale Ethereum by moving transactions off the mainchain to a Layer 2 sidechain. However, the fundamental difference is that ZK-Rollups group hundreds of transfers into a single transaction, which is validated with a ZK-proof on the Ethereum mainnet, whereas plasma chains create and submit one transaction per transfer.

Plasma’s scalability is limited by the high amount of data requirements on the mainnet for validating blocks when users want to withdraw from the sidechain. Furthermore, the challenge period is lengthy, and users must stay online — or forfeit their rewards. ZK-Rollups are more user-friendly, utilizing fewer resources and making them a more promising Ethereum scaling solution than plasma for most use cases. 

Plasma is designed to interact and communicate as rarely as possible with the mainframe. This has caused some data unavailability errors. When this occurs, it has to be determined whether the ledger is correct and the operator is trustworthy. Some plasma implementations hold votes among governance token holders to resolve this issue. This differs from the assumed trusted state of rollups, which rely on the “one in n” rule to validate authenticity.

One major upside to plasma and rollups is that even if the exchange running the scaling solution is down, funds can be withdrawn because of the fraud proofs on the main public ledger.

State channels are scaling solutions that allow two or more parties to transact securely off the Ethereum blockchain. The parties involved interact without recourse to the mainchain by sending state updates between themselves.

When any of the parties decide to stop using the channels, they initiate an “exit” — that is, they submit the last state updates to the mainchain, and the current balances are transferred to the parties that started the channel. The mainchain validates this current state by verifying final balances and signatures, making it challenging for anyone to exit from an invalid state.

But there’s a drawback: The mainchain has no way of knowing if another transaction has been added to the previous ones after the last state updates have been submitted. A way around this is to allow a period for any of the parties to challenge the exit. To eliminate the extended wait times to withdraw to the mainchain, parties involved in the transaction can sign a “conclusion proof” which allows a party to exit without waiting for the challenge period to elapse.

State channels have the advantage of allowing transactions between two parties without involving a third party, unlike ZK-Rollups, where a rollup operator must process all transactions. 

Another difference between state channels and ZK-Rollups is that state channels have immediate finality: The state is final once the counterparty confirms that an update was received (i.e., the transfer of values is instant).

Zero-knowledge rollups hold significant potential as an ideal scalability solution for Ethereum.

Therefore, to take advantage of this fast-developing technology, here’s a list of protocols that implement ZK-Rollups and their coins.

The Loopring network is a ZK-Rollup-powered project that enables developers to create exchanges or DEXs with fast settlement for traders on the Ethereum network. Loopring DEXs offer low-cost trading and payment on the Ethereum blockchain, leveraging the high-throughput advantage of ZK proofs.

ZK-Rollups enable Loopring DEXs to take settlement computation off-chain, rather than settling directly on the Ethereum blockchain like other exchanges. This slashes the number of transactions submitted to the Ethereum network, easing congestion, increasing speed and reducing trading costs.

LRC is the native utility token of the Loopring network. Traders pay in LRC when processing each trade. On Loopring, 80% of the funds are sent to the liquidity providers, and the balance is shared between insurers and Loopring’s 

The LRC price could be affected by the performance of the Ethereum network. As transactions on Ethereum increase, slowing down the network and driving fees higher, more users will favor scalability solutions such as Loopring.

Immutable X is a Layer 2 scaling solution for non-fungible tokens (

) on Ethereum. It uses ZK-Rollups to scale up instant trading, and to eliminate gas fees for NFT minting and trading, without sacrificing the security of users and assets.

IMX is the native utility token of the Immutable X protocol. Users can earn IMX by trading and carrying out other activities on the network. IMX can be used to pay fees, to stake on the protocol, or as a governance token.

Immutable X stands at the intersection of three popular narratives in the crypto space —

NFTs, ZK-Rollups and Gaming ― making it a promising asset worth considering. Furthermore, because its zero gas fees for trading NFTs attract more developers to the platform, Immutable X is primed for substantial growth.

 network is a ZK-Rollup-based protocol for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. It allows developers to build 

 which combine the high-security features of Ethereum with the low gas fees and scalability of Polygon Network.

MATIC is the native token powering the Polygon Network. It’s used to pay transaction fees, and can also be staked in the PoS consensus to earn passive income. Users can earn MATIC by providing resources for transaction validation and executing smart contracts on the network.

The main reason to keep an eye on MATIC is the rapid growth of the Polygon network, with more interoperable projects launching on it. Also, Polygon has recently acquired the Ethereum scaling startup 

 for $400 million. Mir Protocol boasts the fastest and most advanced ZK-proof technology, called 

, which was designed to generate proof faster and to verify more transactions in one proof.

This is the second major acquisition by Polygon, having previously bought ZK-Rollup Hermez Network (now 

 is a PoW blockchain that combines Layer 1 and Layer 2 elements to create a platform for the development of Web 3.0 DApps. It combines the high security of 

 and the DApp capabilities of Ethereum (using a ZK-Rollup scaling solution) to create fast and secure 

 products. The Syscoin project aims to create a platform for organizations to utilize distributed ledger technology with high security, low cost and high scalability.

Syscoin’s native token, SYS, is used to pay network fees, collateralize a masternode for rewards and participate in governance. Users can also create a custom asset token, Syscoin Platform Token (SPT), which uses the Syscoin Token platform. Both Bitcoin and SYS can be mined simultaneously in a process known as merge-mining.

There’s every reason to be bullish about Syscoin in 2022. The Syscoin network offers various applications in 

, and an increasing number of projects are launching on the platform. With the ZK-Rollups scaling solution promising throughput of 210,000 TPS, the Syscoin network will increasingly handle more transactions at very low fees.

) protocol built on the automated market maker (AMM) model. It’s the first 

 to implement a Layer 2 scaling solution based on ZK-Rollup technology which promises security and high scalability. Using ZK-Rollup technology, ZKSwap lessens the load on the main Ethereum network and offers better security, lower cost, higher TPS and privacy for traders.

The ZKSwap network is powered by ZKS, its native ERC20 token. ZKS is used to reward users for community mining, transaction verifications and other pro-network tasks. ZKS holders can vote for token listings and also govern the network.

There are great plans ahead for ZKSwap: Proposed Layer 2 lending and stable currency exchange services are in the works. ZKSwap is also developing a general 

ZKSwap partners with popular DEXs, such as MXC, Huobi, 

, and is working to integrate more protocols in the near future.

With its increasing popularity, the Ethereum network is still facing scalability challenges as more projects launch. Expectedly, Layer 2 solutions are only going to become more relevant. In this space, ZK-Rollups with breakthrough zero-knowledge-proof technology offer significant advantages in TPS, gas fees, security, privacy and scalability. Even better, ZK-Rollups and ZK-proof technology are relatively nascent, and more technological advances are to be expected in this field.

ZK-Rollups Guide: ETH Scalability — and Why It’s the Next Big Narrative

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