The Arbitrum Foundation 2025 Transparency Report: The Year of Institutional Adoption
2025 marked a decisive shift for the blockchain industry as traditional finance moved beyond experimentation and began building onchain.
The Arbitrum Foundation was well-positioned to support this transition by connecting financial market infrastructure to production-grade blockchain rails and a growing ecosystem of applications, establishing Arbitrum as a leading platform for institutional deployments. This work was supported through targeted builder programs, strategic funding initiatives, and operational coordination across the network. In 2025 alone, the Foundation approved 189 ecosystem deals, backing teams across DeFi, infrastructure, and consumer applications.
This shift translated into measurable growth across the ecosystem. Robinhood began offering tokenized securities on Arbitrum, and the value of real-world assets on the network exceeded $800 million. Stablecoin supply grew 80% year over year, lifetime transactions crossed 2.1 billion, and more than 1,000 projects were building on Arbitrum by year-end.
Key Highlights from 2025
- Institutional adoption accelerated. Robinhood launched tokenized U.S. equities and ETFs for European customers on Arbitrum One, growing to nearly 2,000 tokenized assets within six months. Major asset managers, including Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, and Spiko, expanded tokenized financial products on Arbitrum, driving RWA value by 7x year over year, supported in part by the DAO-approved STEP initiative.
- Network activity scaled significantly. Arbitrum surpassed 2.1 billion lifetime transactions, with the second billion processed in under twelve months. Total Value Secured (TVS) reached approximately $20 billion, while stablecoin supply expanded significantly, peaking near $10 billion. By year-end, more than 1,000 projects were building on Arbitrum.
- The Arbitrum chain ecosystem expanded. Over 100 Arbitrum chains were live or in development, reinforcing the platform’s dual role as both a shared liquidity environment and a modular stack for launching dedicated blockchain networks. Robinhood Chain became the latest addition to the ecosystem. Under the Arbitrum Chain Expansion framework, these chains contribute 10% of their net protocol revenue back to the ecosystem, strengthening the economic flywheel that supports long-term growth.
- Builder programs accelerated ecosystem development. The Foundation approved 189 ecosystem deals in 2025, the majority through targeted initiatives such as Trailblazer, ArbiFuel, and the Audit Subsidy Program. Coupled with founder enablement initiatives like Open House, these programs provide capital, infrastructure support, and security resources that help teams progress from early development to production deployment.
- Core infrastructure advanced. Major upgrades included 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.
- DAO governance and sustainability evolved. The ecosystem’s economic model strengthened as new revenue streams expanded the DAO’s income sources. By year-end, the DAO generated revenue from four sources: transaction fees, Timeboost sequencing auctions, treasury management returns, and the Arbitrum Expansion Program (each operating at gross margins of 90%+). Timeboost alone returned more than $6 million to the DAO in its first year.
During the same period, the DAO began experimenting with new governance structures designed to improve operational clarity and execution, while participation rose considerably.
Together, these developments highlight the continued maturation of the Arbitrum ecosystem in 2025. While Arbitrum continued to lead the L2 landscape, developments in 2025 underscored its position as a top blockchain platform in its own right, with an economic model that is both scalable and sustainable.
Throughout this journey, the Arbitrum Foundation has played a pivotal role in supporting ecosystem growth, enabling institutional participation, strengthening governance infrastructure, and ensuring that the network continues to scale responsibly.
As the sixth transparency report of the Arbitrum Foundation, this report provides a detailed overview of its work across five chapters: ecosystem growth, technical infrastructure, education and community, governance, and operations.