Those are just the tokens that dropped the most. Nearly all major Ethereum L2 governance tokens took a hit over the last month, even though the overall scaling ecosystem kept growing.
Normally, investors expect that more users translate to more activity, and more activity would push token prices up. Transaction counts are up, new apps keep launching, TVL is holding steady, and institutions are still building on Ethereum scaling tech, yet the governance tokens keep sliding.
Many Layer 2 tokens currently provide governance rights or rewards for participating, but they usually don’t get a cut of the revenue the protocol generates.
So even if there are more transactions, more users, and more fees coming in, that doesn’t always mean the token’s value will go up. This is one of the big reasons investors are getting more cautious about L2 token valuations.
Buterin said that the original idea of L2s acting as “branded shards” to help scale Ethereum doesn’t really fit anymore. L1 fees have come down, and gas limits have gone way up in 2026.
He advised L2 teams to move beyond just scaling and instead carve out a niche, like specialized VMs (virtual machines) for privacy, extreme speed, non-financial apps, or very low lag, while committing to at least stage 1 security for any ETH or Ethereum asset handling.
Buterin’s comments added to the pressure already weighing on L2 tokens by pointing out how much L1s have improved and how slowly L2s are maturing. This eventually helped keep investor caution high, although it didn’t trigger any sudden crash.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Several upgrades could end up improving token economics. One of those is shared sequencing, where L2s share an ordering system to work more efficiently and open up new ways to generate revenue. Another is based rollups, which would bring sequencing closer to Ethereum itself, potentially boosting ETH’s value while changing how L2 economics play out.
Additionally, there are interoperability projects like AggLayer or Superchain that aim to make different L2s work together like one seamless system. On the security side, future upgrades might tie L2s more closely to Ethereum and bring in new staking or economic features.
All of this could eventually create a tighter link between how much a network is used and how much its token is worth.
