·L2sDeep Dives
The Expanding Business Model of Blockchains
Blockspace is cheap and easy to copy, so chains are going after ecosystem and product revenue. Arbitrum, Polygon, MegaETH and Sophon show the two routes.
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Networks, Rollups & Ecosystems
Network coverage is where Castle Labs connects protocol design to ecosystem outcomes. We write about L2 economics, sequencer and data-availability tradeoffs, incentive design, consumer-app bets, and the strategic positioning of ecosystems like Arbitrum, Starknet, Mantle, MegaETH, and Base. This lane matters to foundations, protocols, investors, and builders because the question is no longer whether blockspace can scale; it is which networks can turn scale into durable demand.
Latest L2s Research
Showing 1-12 of 34 articles
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·L2sDeep Dives
propAMMs: Better than CEX?
How propAMMs differ from passive x*y=k AMMs, why their fills on Solana landed 0.33 to 1.36 bps from the best CEX mid, and how the model is growing on Ethereum.
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·Deep DivesL2s
Stacks POX Upgrade: Solving BTC Capital Problem with the Right Incentives
Over the last couple of years, since the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, BTC has become an increasingly institutionalised and legitimised asse.
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·RWAsDeep Dives
RWAs: A Blueprint for the Future of Mantle
Tokenised stocks are among the fastest-growing RWAs, with $1.6 billion distributed. How Mantle and Bybit built issuance, trading and redemption onchain.
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·Deep DivesL2s
MegaEth and the Bet on Consumer Apps
For the last cycle, crypto has been strengthening its infrastructure, but the core audience remained the same.
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·L2sMarkets
Inside Arbitrum DRIP Season 1
Arbitrum DRIP Season 1 spent 24M ARB on lending incentives for Aave, Morpho, Fluid, Euler, Dolomite and Silo. TVL fell 34% as ETH dropped. What worked?
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·L2sMarkets
Arbitrum Today: Strategic Focus and Growth Drivers
Arbitrum's 2025 growth drivers: RWAs up 480% to $870 million, Timeboost generating over $6 million in revenue, DRIP incentives, and apps from Aave to Pendle.
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·L2sMarkets
Redstone x Arbitrum Stylus: Oracles Beyond the EVM Limitations
How RedStone's oracle on Arbitrum Stylus uses Rust and WASM to bypass EVM limits, halving per-feed computation for 26% total savings versus its EVM version.
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·RWAsDeFi
Mantle's RWA Push: Over $150k in Builder Prizes in their Global Hackathon
Mantle's RWA hackathon offers over $150k in prizes across 6 tracks, with $15k per track and a $30k grand prize, as Mantle shifts to a regulated RWA ecosystem.
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·L2sDeep Dives
Drip or Drop? Analysing the Effectiveness of the DRIP Incentive Program on the Arbitrum Ecosystem
Arbitrum's DRIP program distributes up to 24M ARB to lending markets. In under 2 months, lending TVL rose 26.7% to $1.94b. Which protocols and assets won?
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·L2sMarkets
Mantle's Momentum: Short-Term Catalysts and Onchain TVL
Mantle's RWA strategy and catalysts: onchain TVL above $2.5b, RWA commitments up from $100m to $255m, the UR account, Bybit's user base and MNT discount buys.
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·L2sDeep Dives
State of Stylus: Breaking Barriers on Arbitrum
How Arbitrum Stylus adds a WASM VM for Rust, C and C++ contracts, what the Stylus Sprint funded with over 2M ARB, and builds like RedStone and Renegade.
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