The Etherlink, the Tezos-Powered, EVM’s matching layer 2 scaling solution, is seeing a wave of adoption and defi momentum just weeks after the release of beta and completing the main upgrade of Calypso this March. With over $ 18 million in total amount locked (TVL) – a 12x that has jumped since early February – the enesylink ecosystem is fast -paced. Growth has been -fueled by a highly successful reward initiative and growing developer activity.
In the midst of the speed of the network is Apple Farm, a $ 3 million liquidity mining program that exceeds the initial expectations by attracting a lot of users and liquidity providers. The incentives have catalyzed the amount of trade and liquidity throughout the Etherlink-native dapps, especially in Iguanadex’s decentralized exchange, processed by more than $ 150 million in trading volume in just a few weeks. Participants in the market are climbing the platform to achieve Apple Farm rewards and arbitration opportunities, contributing to dynamic on-chain activity.
“The success of the Apple Farm shows the effectiveness of our approach to incentive programs and the development of this ecosystem,” said David Relkin, head of the Defi for the Tezos ecosystem in Nomadic Labs. “We are building a sustainable environment where users find real value in significant on-chain contact.”
Next to Dex Growth, Superlend, a protocol of the main currency market in Etherlink, has emerged as an element of the foundation of the Defi Stack of the network. Until mid-April, Superlend reported $ 16.93 million in deposits and $ 10.49 million in active borrowing-figures putting it into the most successful lending protocols in the first stage in an L2 in 2025. Interestingly, this traction arrives at a time as many other layers 2 are struggling to maintain post-aircraft users.
Another standout is uranium.io, the world’s first decentralized market for physical uranium trading, which recorded $ 6.46 million on TVL. It reflects Etherlink’s ambition to exceed conventional cases of defi use and experiment with tokenized real-world assets. On the retail side, Hanji, a community -driven platform, struck a $ 200,000 cap under 24 hours after the launch on March 26 and since raising a $ 1 million limit to accommodate user demand.
A recent Messari report coincides with Etherlink’s breakout trajectory, pointing to prolonged growth in purse addresses and transactions. More than 50 projects are currently building the chain, emphasizing the developer’s increase in long -term flexibility in the network.
CALYPSO UPGRADE: A leap to performance
Supporting this growth is Calypso, upgrading the etherlink network designed to enhance scalability and performance. Updating delivers up to 30x faster storing smart contracts and significantly reduces disk loading to operator nodes. These improvements are key to handling the spike in the transaction by not sacrificing stability or decentralization.
In addition, Calypso improves surge protection and prepares the network for faster Tez bridalness between Etherlink and the Tezos L1, which potentially unlocks additional cases of defi use and cross-chain liquidity.
Fortify Labs Fuels Developer Momentum
At the forefront, Etherlink puts the basis for long change through the Fortify Labs program, now its second cohort. Na -back by TZ APAC, the initiative attracts seven new projects that build exclusively to Etherlink, including:
- Bluwhale AI: a decentralized analytics platform for data modeling and ML applications;
- Idrx: a stablecoin that is in the Indonesian rupiah;
- Miomi Game: A eSports gaming protocol that explores on-chain contest dynamics.
This early stages of change reflects a broader move to the L2 landscape, where builders are increasingly looking for networks with deep infrastructure, cross-chain compatibility, and long-term support.
Etherlink’s rise came at a time when the layer 2 competition was heated, with a base, zksync, and the line was aggressively expanding their ecosystems. However, Etherlink recognizes itself through the architecture of the Tezos-native rollup, which combines Ethereum tooling with the Tezos’ and security guarantee-that it is placed as a hybrid model for multichain scalability.