The start of a new month has brought renewed fervor from the cryptocurrency market as Bitcoin's (BTC) price steadily climbed from a low of $43,537 on Feb. 28 to a high of $49,200 during Monday's early trading hours. As traders get excited about positive moves in the market and look to reenter positions, the increasing use of decentralized finance (DeFi) continues to drive fees on the Ethereum network higher, shining the spotlight on the top layer-two protocols that offer working solutions. Three protocols that have emerged as top layer-two contenders with working platforms are Polygon, xDai and Loopring. Each offers …

Optimism, a company providing Layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum, has secured backing from venture capital firm and Coinbase investor Andreessen Horowitz, or A16z. Andreessen Horowitz, which manages a portfolio worth roughly $16.6 billion, announced it is leading Optimism’s $25 million Series A investment round on Feb. 24. The demand for Layer 2 scaling solutions has escalated amid Ethereum’s surging fees, with average transaction costs pushing as high as $40 on Feb. 23. To achieve lower fees, lower latency, and greater throughput compared to transacting on Ethereum’s Layer 1 main net, Optimism uses “rollups” to bundle transactions together using smart …