Ethereum scaling has entered a new phase: it’s become not only a battle for TVL or transaction speed; it’s now an all-out war for mind share. Growing social interaction has become an early sign for both the health of a project and the expected expansion of its network as the Web3 space evolves.
On February 9, 2026, Phoenix Group published data highlighting a major shift in how Layer-2 projects move into and out of the top tier. The findings show that some projects are gaining traction with the crypto community far faster than others.
Linea and Starknet – The New Titans of Engagement
Based on recent social activity metrics, Linea now leads in community engagement. Recently, they showed the largest number of engaged posts at 3,1000 and total user interaction over a 24-hour period more than 3,500,000. The growth is due largely to Linea’s incentive programs and the presence of many high-performance dApps within the Linea network, which will continue to promote frequent user interactions.
Coming in second place was Starknet (STRK) with 2600 engaged posts, and while their total interaction count of 328100 is less than Linea’s; they had a high volume of unique posts indicating a decentralized and vocal base of contributors. Starknet has recently shifted their efforts toward optimizing smart contracts built in Cairo thereby accelerating their developer base and resulting in a strong social media presence.
The Rise of “Social-First” Scaling Solutions
Celo (CELO) has recently shifted to Ethereum L-2, which is quite a shock for a new project in such high demand. Celo’s 2.6 million interactions exceed those seen by Starknet, proving that Celo’s first model and commitment to providing real-world use cases can attract users. This is in line with a larger movement toward creating usable products rather than using terms from a technical point of view.
Likewise, ZKsync and Stacks continue to have a base of support that is stable. Stacks in particular has drawn significant attention from users seeking to add smart contract capabilities to the Bitcoin network. This concept continues to generate high engagement rates whenever there is notable price movement in the market.
Evolving Dynamics – From POL to ARB
This research analyzed the activity level of the major blockchain platforms. The two leaders, Polygon (POL) and Arbitrum (ARB), have maintained relatively constant activity rates over time but are competing against newer, more popular platforms.
With 80.3K interactions with users, Arbitrum’s level of engagement is less than that of the top platforms; however, it is considered the backbone of the DeFi industry as an active participant. The development of the community is typically on an institutional and technical focus, which may not produce a large amount of viral interaction in the short-term but will retain users for extended periods.
Conclusion
Social engagement is a critical benchmark of success for any blockchain project. Among the newest rankings of projects, for instance, Celo is on the rise (fast) while Starknet and Linea are in competition. Investors and developers can use these metrics to help predict which direction the community will grow in. As there are more projects in the L-2 space than ever before (crowded), having a strong social signal will be equally important compared to the actual technology.
