Optimism [OP] overtakes Arbitrum, but what’s troubling investors?

ambcrypto.com:

On 2 March, Messari published a report comparing Optimism [OP] and Arbitrum. The report mentioned that while Arbitrum may have relied on organic growth, Optimism concentrated on providing incentives for users to reach its 3-million unique user milestone throughout the previous year.

— Messari (@MessariCrypto) March 2, 2023

How much are 1,10,100 OPs worth today?

As per the report, in the short term, 35–45% of new users were retained by both Arbitrum and Optimism, although Optimism retained a larger percentage of its long-term user base. Though both the short- and long-term retention rates are valuable metrics, the latter is more important in order to understand the value of a blockchain.

Moreover, Optimism’s long-term retention was considerably higher than that of Arbtrum, suggesting more users’ trust in the L2 blockchain. 

Source: Messari

Interestingly, while OP’s retention rate registered a hike, Token Terminal’s data revealed that the same remained true for the blockchain’s fees. OP’s network fees and revenue both went up over the last 30 days, indicating increased usage.

Source: Token Terminal

Further growth in the Optimism network can be expected as the blockchain approaches the date of the much-awaited Bedrock upgrade. The new upgrade is expected to go live in March, and it will considerably reduce usage fees on the mainnet. 

While the aforementioned data pointed out strong performance on the network, Optimism’s native token had reasons for concern as its price declined by over 17% in the