Introductions

What is Optimism?

Optimism (its native token OP) is a fast, stable, and scalable L2 blockchain built by Ethereum developers, for Ethereum developers. Built as a minimal extension to existing Ethereum software, Optimism’s EVM-equivalent architecture scales your Ethereum apps without surprises. If it works on Ethereum, it works on Optimism at a fraction of the cost.

What is a bearmarket?

A bear market is defined by a prolonged drop in investment prices generally, a bear market happens when a broad market index falls by 20% or more.

Methodology

Most of the data was extracted by mainly using derivatives of optimism.core table such as optimism.core.fact_blocks blocks , ethereum.core.fact_hourly_token_prices and optimism.core.fact_transactions for network/market and bridging activities, from optimism.core.fact_event_logs joined with Suhiswap, Uniswap and Velodrome …_swap tables for swap related actions and optimism.core.ez_nft_sales for NFT related actions on Optimism, all the mentioned tables were provided by Flipsidecrypto database, to make these raw extracted data more comprehensible all types of proper charts and graphs were utilized.

This analysis made the beginning of Q2, 2022 as its starting timeframe

What is covered in this analysis?

In this analysis Optimism during the recent bear markets in terms of network/market performances, bridge actions, swaps and NFTs is observed and interpreted.

[2]Optimism bridging actions visualized

[1/3]Discoveries

• OP mostly have a price trend similar to ETH’s with more or less intensity except second week of Aug which it started a downward trend after its recorded ATH(1.98$) on Aug 4 opposite to ETH’s rise in price, currently both tokens are in a major price correction action.

[1]Optimism network/market performances visualized

OP token price action vs ETH

[2/2]Discoveries

• May 31 and Jun1 had the highest recorded bridged and bridges, 4.4K and 5.3K bridges, 4K and 4.88K bridgers, bridging Ethereum to Optimism, respectively, most bridges Optimism to Ethereum was recorded on Nov1 with 28 bridges via 9 bridges, there was a huge growth to bridges and bridgers on second half of Apr, late May and second week of Oct for Ethereum on Optimism path other path had a healthy and steady growth, overall 70K bridges and 65K bridgers on Ethereum to Optimism path and 2.6K bridges and 1.3K bridgers on Optimism to Ethereum accumulated, amplifies user preference to Ethereum to Optimism path.

[1/2]Discoveries

• Looks like after Jul the daily transactions on the chain had an upward trend, June 1 with 487K recorded the most transactions which 41K, 8.4% of them failed and Nov9 with 56K, 16% of transactions failing was the most faulty day, may first recorded the most average fee per transaction overall after second half of Jun average paid fees notably decreased.
• June1 as seen above was the most recorded users in a day with 106K users and average daily users increased since June but this caused a slight decrease to average transactions done per users due to wider range of active users, this is also true for new daily users as well especially since last week of September, Optimism gained most of its users in a day on Jun27 with 29.6K new users.

[4]Discoveries

• Overall total sale volume of 6M USD via 220K sales accumulated in NFT sales.
• Most volume sold in a day was on Sep21 with 600K USD combined with the highest number of sales 4.4K.
• Highest recorded buyers were on Sep21 with 3.1K as for the sellers it was on Sep23 with 3.7K sellers looks like big part of the buyers on Sep21 held their NFTs for only2 days.
• NFT sale number/volume and users saw a global increase after Sep20 it made a jump in growth of the recorded statistics.

[4]Optimism NFT actions visualized

[3]Discoveries

• Most of the swapped volume was on Jul29 with 94M on Velodrome and 29M Uniswap and overall average daily swapped is losing its daily volume since Aug, more than half of the volume swapped, 2.29B USD was on Velodrome followed by Uniswap 2.1B, 48% Suhsiswaps share with only 1.1M swapped Optimism is negligible, Velodrome since Jul started it huge growth in total volume both Uniswap especially Velodrome are having a respectable growth.
• Highest swaps ever were on Velodrome with 71K swaps on Jul29 via 3K users, highest recorded swappers in a was on Sep30 with 6.2K and 6.7K swappers on Velodrome and Uniswap respectively, Sep saw a huge growth to swappers on Velodrome and Uniswap, overall 2.9M, 68% of swaps accumulated on Velodrome followed by 1.3M on Uniswap and 14K on Sushiswap as for the swappers it was 406K, 55% swappers on Uniswap and 320K on Velodrome, Sushiswap had 7.2K swappers.
• Looks like Uniswap due to it being the biggest swapping platform is attracting slightly more users Optimism native platform, Velodrome with more swaps and swapped volume is bringing it home.

Optimism compared to relevant chains

[1/1]Discoveries

• Highest transaction among all four compared chain transactions, in a day belong to Polygon with 4.1M transactions on may 9 2022 while Optimism had only 129K transactions, Optimism recorded its highest transactions on Sep21 with 348K TXs, while Polygons daily transactions is slightly decreasing and Ethereum haven’t changed much Optimism and Arbitrum is having an increase to their daily transactions during a bearish market, a total of 642M transaction accumulated on Polygon followed by Ethereum, 249M, Optimism have 30.6M transactions.
• On Jul26 2022 highest Users in a day was recorded by Polygon with 209K users while Optimism had 14.5K, Optimism had its ATH to users on Jun1 with 106K users, after Jun Optimism had a flat increase to its daily users and Ethereum with 83M users have the highest users followed by Polygon with 63M users, Optimism accumulated 3.5M users.

Optimism market actions

[2/1]Discoveries

• Aug 4-5 recorded the highest volume bridged on Optimism with Aug4 recording 157M USD bridged from Ethereum to Optimism, most volume bridged from Optimism to Ethereum was on Nov3 with 60.6M bridged USD, May and Aug saw the biggest growth to Ethereum to Optimism bridged volume for Optimism to Ethereum it was late Aug and Nov overall both having a healthy growth and a total of 1.1B USD, 60% of bridge volumes were Ethereum to Optimism vs 743M Optimism to Ethereum.
• May26 had the most average bridged volume, overall Ethereum to Optimism path with 8.4M daily average bridged volume have more than 2 times the bridged volume of Optimism to Ethereum.
• Most preferred bridged volume with 22K TXs is between 10-100$ on Ethereum to Optimism path followed by 18.8K, 100-1K$ its 2.3K with volume transacted more than 10K% followed by 1K-10K, 937 looks like users bridging Optimism to Ethereum are more experienced and professional traders.

[3]Optimism swapping actions visualized

Conclusion

• Polygon accumulated the most transaction among all four observed blockchains with 642M transactions followed by Ethereum, 250M Optimism had 30.6M, Optimism recorded its ATH transactions on Sep21 with 348K transactions, while daily growth to two named major chained is stalled Optimism and Arbitrum are having an increase to their daily transactions during a bearish market, transactions. Jul26 2022 highest users in a day was recorded by Polygon with 209K users, Optimism had its ATH to users on Jun1 with 106K, after Jun Optimism experienced an increase to daily users, overall Ethereum with total of 83M users have the highest users followed by Polygon, 63M users and Optimism accumulated 3.5M users. Seems like the bearish market might have slowed Optimisms growth as a chains but it haven’t stopped it at all.
• After July 2022 daily transactions and users on the Optimism are increasing, Jun1 with 487K recorded the most transactions which 41K of them failed and Nov9 with 56K, 16% of transactions failing had the most errors probably due to mass panic caused by FTX matter, most recorded users in a day was on June1 with 106K users, there was an increase to average daily users June but this caused a slight decrease to average transactions per users most likely due to a more wider range of users, Optimism gained most of its users on Jun27 with 29.6K new users looks like there is a notable upward trend to new users on Optimism which indicates that the chain is healthy and its growing.
• The price trend between OP and ETH is usually similar with more or less intensity except on second week of Aug it started a downward trend after its recorded ATH 1.98$ on Aug 4 opposite to ETH’s increase to price, currently both tokens are in a big downward trend after the FTX fiasco since Nov7.
• Overall 1.16B USD were bridged from Ethereum to Optimism via 70K bridges done by 23K users and 743M USD was bridged from Optimism to Ethereum by 2.6K bridged done by 1.2K bridgers, most of the bridged volume from Ethereum to Optimism was on Aug4, 157M and Optimism to Ethereum, on Nov3 with 60.6M, most bridges and bridgers happened on Jun1 with 5.3K bridges via 4.9K bridgers transferring from Ethereum to Optimism, looks like users are investing by far more into the platform and the chain succeeded making a trustable foundation with mentioned metrics to back it up.
• A total of 2.29B USD on Velodrome, 2.1B USD on Uniswap and 1.1M on Suhsiswaps accumulated via 2.9M, 1.3M and 14K swaps and 324K, 406K and 7.2K transactions accumulated respectively, Sushiwap seems to be forgotten among swappers while Velodrome and Uniswap are dominating Optimism swapping Velodrome as a native to chain platform with lower users but higher transactions and volume is a well received platform among users, highest swapped volume was on Jul29, 94M on Velodrome and 29M Uniswap and overall average daily swapped is losing its daily volume momentum since Aug and most swaps ever was on Velodrome with 71K swaps on Jul29 via 3K users, highest recorded swappers in a was on Sep30 with 6.2K and 6.7K swappers on Velodrome and Uniswap respectively, Sep saw a huge growth to swappers on Velodrome and Uniswap, overall 2.9M, 68% of swaps accumulated on Velodrome followed by 1.3M on Uniswap and 14K on Sushiswap, seems that Optimism swapping is getting more popular among users but its frequency haven’t changed much but the decrease to daily volume is visible.
• A total sale volume of 6M USD via 220K sale transactions accumulated in NFTs on Optimism. highest volume sale in a day was on Sep21 with 600K USD with 4.4K transactions.
• Highest recorded buyers were on Sep21 with 3.1K as for the sellers it was on Sep23 with 3.7K sellers looks like big part of the buyers on Sep21 held their NFTs for only2 days, NFT statistics seems to having an overall increase after Sep20.
• Overall Optimism as a blockchains seems to be relatively thriving in a more than 1 year old bearish market so a much brighter future and lots of not reached potential is left on the Optimism which is a bullish market way.

Thank you for your time!