Although Optimism was the first L2 to have a TGE, Arbitrum is the true pioneer of the L2 wave. In the first half of 2023, Korean whales were live trading contracts on GMX, DeFi Degens were using GLP Lego combinations for Yield Farming, and grassroots communities were banding together to hype ancient cat and dog Meme coins. Arbitrum was one of the brightest sectors in the spring market of 2023.

However, this flourishing ecological prosperity, akin to a tapestry of blooming flowers, came to a dim end after the epic TGE and airdrop of Arbitrum's native token ARB.

Looking back from November 2025, the main reasons for this situation can be summarized in three points:

-- The enormous positive externality generated by Arbitrum's epic airdrop was seized by competitors ZkSync, Starknet, and Linea;

-- The core business model of the then-king-level L2 was neither naturally organic nor self-sustaining, but highly reliant on the false prosperity manufactured by airdrop farmers;

-- Too much of the airdrop was allocated to ecological developers, most of whom were well-disguised high-level airdrop farmers. After receiving the airdrop, most of these developers became inactive, with some using their large amounts of ARB to vote in DAO governance for more ARB allocation to themselves.

The best solution to these issues can only be time.

After nearly 30 months of accumulation, the Arbitrum Foundation believes the time is ripe to launch the DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP) to reactivate the vitality of the Arbitrum ecosystem.

The first arrow from the Arbitrum Foundation is to use the ARB incentives from DRIP Season 1 to subsidize the yield of ecological DeFi lending protocols (Aave, Morpho, Fluid, Euler, Dolomite, Silo, etc.) to attract on-chain users with real monetary incentives.

According to Dune dashboard data (https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/drip-season-1-lending-protocols), DRIP Season 1 raised the borrowable funds balance in DeFi from $1.38B to $1.67B, and the loan balance from $967.52M to $1.17B.

However, in the market share ratio of the above DeFi lending protocols in the L2 market, Arbitrum's market share only increased from 3.09% to 3.75%. In comparison, Base's market share increased from 5.04% to 6.64% during the same period.

This indicates that, in terms of attracting on-chain DeFi lending Degens, real monetary subsidies are still somewhat inferior to the expectations of airdrops with potential explosive returns.

The second arrow from the Arbitrum Foundation is to incubate new PerpDEXs with a high degree of ecological coupling, namely Variational Protocol and Ethereal Perps.

Arbitrum has a special relationship with today's PerpDEX Hyperliquid, which has bridged $4.59B USDC into Arbitrum, accounting for 69.08% of Arbitrum's total USDC supply.

However, this $4.59B USDC only contributes to Arbitrum's revenue in the form of transfer gas fees, while other high-value revenues and positive externalities are captured by Hyperliquid.

In this new version of the environment where "whoever has PerpDEX rules the world," the Arbitrum ecosystem needs its own PerpDEX. The OLP mechanism of Variational Protocol has the potential to recreate the glory of GMX's GLP from back in the day.

The third arrow from the Arbitrum Foundation is a deep partnership with Robinhood to aggressively promote the tokenization of U.S. stocks.

Currently, Arbitrum's RWA asset scale is $1,026.53M, mainly composed of tokenized U.S. Treasuries, tokenized European bonds, and tokenized U.S. stocks EXOD. There are 615 RWA assets, primarily tokenized U.S. stocks issued by Robinhood.

Due to current regulatory restrictions, the structure of tokenized U.S. stocks consists of off-chain SPV custody + CEX/DEX liquidity pools. This leads to issues such as insufficient liquidity, unclear legal status, and reliance on centralized entities for clearing and settlement in this phase of tokenized U.S. stocks.

However, whether it is the rapid advancement of Arbitrum x Robinhood's U.S. stock tokenization or Solana's new narrative of ICM, they both point to a future vision set by the SEC Project Crypto: the complete blockchainization of global financial infrastructure.

In summary, the three arrows of the Arbitrum Foundation—DRIP plan, incubating Variational, and betting on U.S. stock tokenization—focus on the present while pointing to the future.

The Arbitrum Foundation is truly making moves this time.

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