Arbitrum has processed more than 2.1 billion cumulative transactions, with total value locked holding near $20 billion, according to the Arbitrum Foundation’s 2025 Transparency Report. Stablecoin supply on the network rose 80% year over year and peaked at nearly $10 billion. The report also says the ecosystem now includes more than 1,000 projects and over 100 chains that are live or in development.
The figures show a network that is growing in both activity and asset depth. The report casts 2025 as the year traditional finance sped up its move on-chain, and Arbitrum is using that shift to present itself less as a standard layer-2 scaling venue and more as infrastructure for institutional capital and structured on-chain products.
Tokenized stocks, ETFs, and RWAs take center stage
Retail DeFi is no longer the only growth engine in the ecosystem. Robinhood has launched tokenized stocks and ETFs on Arbitrum, expanding to nearly 2,000 listed assets within six months. At the same time, asset managers including Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree have increased their real-world asset activity, pushing on-chain RWA volume on Arbitrum to more than $800 million, up over sevenfold from a year earlier.
That mix is changing how the network is framed. Instead of leaning mainly on the “cheap Ethereum scaling” pitch, Arbitrum is now emphasizing its role as a settlement layer for tokenized RWAs, ETF wrappers, and institutional DeFi flows. The growth in stablecoins adds weight to that message and gives the chain a clearer institutional profile.
Protocol upgrades and DAO revenue become part of the pitch
The report points to infrastructure and governance upgrades including ArbOS improvements, the BoLD verification mechanism, and the Stylus development environment. Those changes are aimed at broadening the developer base and strengthening security. For layer-2 networks, low fees alone are not enough; protocol design and developer tooling are taking on a larger share of the value proposition.
On the revenue side, Arbitrum is also highlighting income sources beyond emissions. The report says Timeboost generated more than $6 million for the DAO in its first year, showing a move toward fee-based and auction-based revenue. Based on the report’s framing, Arbitrum wants to be seen as a network for institutional settlement and structured on-chain products, not only as a high-throughput venue for crypto trading.