I feel I need to voice the concern for growth plans revolving around user acquisition as the primary engine of growth. While bringing in new users is important, I believe there’s too much emphasis on first-time onboarding — and not nearly enough on what happens after.
The Problem with Acquisition-Heavy Growth
Marketing is increasingly leaning toward one-time user acquisition campaigns — incentives, airdrops, hype cycles. These methods may lead to a short-term spike in user numbers, but what happens after that?
If the chain doesn’t offer enough long-term value, utility, or ecosystem stickiness, these users will likely:
- Try once
- Extract value (if any)
- Leave
That’s not sustainable growth — that’s a temporary flash.
Key Questions We Should Be Asking Instead
- People that know about Arbitrum already use it.
So, how do we make Arbitrum more valuable to them?
What core improvements, new features, or ecosystem tools would deepen their engagement? - People that used Arbitrum but left — why?
What’s missing that caused them to switch chains or abandon blockchain altogether?
Were the pain points in UX, fees, lack of killer apps, poor retention design in dApps? - Are we supporting enough use cases that bring users back, even without a marketing push?
If all user flows need constant reminders and incentives to sustain, the problem isn’t the user — it’s the product.
Retention and Monetization: A Better Growth Loop
Instead of chasing vanity metrics (wallets created, one-time TXs, Twitter mentions), imagine if we shifted more of our resources toward:
- User retention:
Optimizing for how often users return, how long they stay in the ecosystem, and what makes them build habits around Arbitrum. - User monetization through utility:
Creating protocols, apps, and infrastructure that people actually pay to use because it solves real problems (e.g. gaming, DeFi automation, RWAs, AI markets, privacy tools). - Developer retention:
Incentivizing builders not just to launch but to stay and grow sustainably — not because of grant dependency but because they found loyal users and solid infra.
Let Root Use Cases Drive Growth
I believe growth that requires constant marketing to survive isn’t real growth.
We should focus on root use cases that solve real needs and generate traction even in the absence of hype — things that:
- Make Arbitrum sticky
- Align with long-term trends (e.g. prediction markets, MEV-resistance, DePIN, zero-knowledge apps)
- Provide a better experience than L1 or competing L2s even without incentives
TL;DR
User acquisition without retention is like pouring water into a leaking bucket.
Let’s fix the bucket first.
Instead of chasing the next spike in wallets or TXs, let’s invest in making Arbitrum more meaningful, useful, and rewarding for those who already believe in it — and those who almost did.
Would love to hear from builders, devs, and users here:
- What made you stick around Arbitrum?
- What do you think would bring back users who left?
Let’s build for depth, not just width.
This is my first Arbitrum forum post. Any constructive feed back is also equivalently welcomed! Thank you for taking the time to read my post and I hope you have a nice da