The Arbitrum Foundation was established in 2023 with a mandate to grow and nurture the Arbitrum ecosystem. Over the last year, the Arbitrum ecosystem and the DAO have achieved significant progress across diverse metrics. Most notably, Arbitrum emerged as the preferred destination for institutional partners like Robinhood and grew its builder pipeline to over 1,000 projects across the network.
As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, the Arbitrum Foundation is pleased to share its sixth transparency report, highlighting key accomplishments and the work undertaken across multiple strategic mandates in 2025.
Scaling as a Top Blockchain Platform
In 2025, the network achieved several defining milestones, underscoring Arbitrum as the top blockchain platform. This reflects the platform’s dual role as the leading L2 in economic activity and the preferred modular stack to launch dedicated blockchain networks.
Arbitrum One became the first L2 to surpass $20 billion in total value secured (TVS). Lifetime transactions exceeded 2.1 billion, stablecoin supply grew 80% year over year, and the builder ecosystem expanded to more than 1,000 projects. In parallel, a dozen new Arbitrum Chains launched with over 100 live or in development by year-end, and Robinhood became the latest to join the chain economy.
This momentum was backed by robust technological improvements that the Foundation funded and helped usher in. Notable upgrades include the ArbOS releases aligned with Ethereum’s roadmap, the introduction of BoLD permissionless validation and Timeboost, new execution clients improving client diversity, and the continued rollout of Stylus, enabling smart contracts written in Rust.
Ecosystem Growth
The Foundation continued to support growth through capital allocation, strategic partnerships, and builder-enablement programs.
In 2025, the Foundation approved 189 ecosystem deals, the majority through targeted initiatives such as Trailblazer, ArbiFuel, and the Audit Subsidy Program. Coupled with founder enablement initiatives like Open House, these programs provided funding, infrastructure support, and security resources that helped teams progress from early development to production deployment.
Institutional Participation
Undoubtedly, Robinhood’s issuance of tokenized securities to customers on Arbitrum was a major milestone for the ecosystem. This marked the first time a leading global fintech company had chosen to use blockchain as core financial infrastructure to power a new kind of market. Within six months of launch, nearly 2,000 tokenized equities were available to trade on Arbitrum One.
Throughout the deployment process, the Foundation played a supportive role, guiding Robinhood through the evaluation of Arbitrum’s L2 and chain architecture and providing the administrative and compliance framework necessary for institutional deployment.
Strengthening Governance Infrastructure
2025 was also the year of maturity for the DAO’s financial and governance framework.
73 proposals were voted on by the DAO, with participation witnessing an upward trend: delegated voting power rose by 12.5%, while average participation per proposal increased 28% year over year. The DAO began experimenting with new governance structures put forward by the Foundation centered on Arbitrum-Aligned Entities to improve operational clarity, speed, and execution. The Foundation also stepped up, working closely with community members on proposal research and drafting, coordination, and execution.
On the economic front, new revenue streams strengthened the DAO treasury and diversified its income sources. Instead of two, the DAO generated revenue from four different revenue streams (Timeboost and treasury management returns were the new additions), each operating at 90%+ gross margins. Timeboost alone returned more than $6 million in proceeds to the DAO in 2025.
Wrap-Up
2025 was a transformative year for the Arbitrum ecosystem. As traditional finance leveraged blockchain to power the next wave of financial innovations, Arbitrum decisively established itself as the platform of choice for institutions. The Foundation remains committed to propelling this momentum further and scaling the platform to new heights responsibly in 2026.
We look forward to continuing our support for the DAO and working closely with our community of builders, partners, and stakeholders to advance Arbitrum’s growth through 2026.