The New L1s Are Just Alternative Chains, Not L1 Killers

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 11:27:12 +0000

The “new corporate L1s” being launched by payments and stablecoin giants aren’t substitutes for a general-purpose, credibly neutral base layer like Ethereum. They are purpose-built execution environments whose economics, governance and risk envelopes look and feel like specialized infrastructure—powerful for their use cases, but fundamentally different animals. If anything, their success increases the surface area where Ethereum matters.

1) What corporate L1s are actually optimizing for

When a Stripe, Circle, or Tether builds a chain, they’re optimizing first for their own product constraints: throughput for a specific asset type (stablecoins), integrated compliance controls, predictable cost, and tight coupling to off-chain treasury/settlement systems. Circle says this explicitly with Arc—an “open Layer-1…purpose-built for stablecoin finance” designed to meet “enterprise-grade” demands. That is not a general-purpose mandate; it’s a payments-and-settlement mandate with programmable hooks.

Ethereum INTEROPERABILITY: Connecting the L1, L2s and Beyond – EMRC

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 21:08:48 +0000

Ethereum continues to advance its transformation, moving towards a modular architecture designed for global scalability. Central to this evolution is the imperative of interoperability, particularly between the Ethereum Layer 1 (L1), its burgeoning ecosystem of Layer 2 (L2) solutions, and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment in general. This report explores Ethereum’s current diversity, examines the concerted efforts by the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and key industry players to foster seamless connectivity, and outlines the strategic long-term benefits of these initiatives for the entire Ethereum ecosystem.

L1 on Ethereum Market Research Center

The New L1s Are Just Alternative Chains, Not L1 Killers

1) What corporate L1s are actually optimizing for

Ethereum INTEROPERABILITY: Connecting the L1, L2s and Beyond – EMRC