As traders reportedly trickled to the network in expectation of it spearheading the next wave of increases in the cryptocurrency market, Arbitrum’s ARB token approached $2 on Wednesday to hit a new high and total value locked (TVL) surpassed $2.5 billion.
Around 10% more has been added to the price in the last day, outpacing the whole cryptocurrency market, and on-chain volumes for apps utilising Arbitrum have surpassed $920 million. During that time, the CoinDesk Market Index fell 1.7%. Volumes of applications based on Solana, which surged following a December meme coin frenzy, were eclipsed by the Arbitrum flood.
The TVL on Arbitrum-based applications has climbed by $1 billion since October, according to data from DefiLlama, which also shows an increase in net inflows.
The token incentives offered by Arbitrum seem to have played a part in raising awareness of ecosystem plays. Users of the decentralised exchanges Gains Network and GMX have benefited from higher rewards and lower costs during the last week as part of the incentives scheme, which has probably improved sentiment towards ARB tokens.
As part of a temporary incentive programme, Arbitrum awarded over $40 million worth of ARB tokens to network-built businesses in October. The value of the tokens varied depending on the project, ranging from a few thousand dollars to $30 million.
GMX bagged the most rewards at 12 million ARB, worth just over $10 million, followed by Gains Network at 7 million ARB.