Etherlink’s TVL Surges to $18 Million with Apple Farm Incentive Program
Etherlink, the EVM-compatible Layer 2 built on Tezos Smart Rollups, has experienced exponential growth thanks to the Apple Farm rewards initiative. The total value locked (TVL) on Etherlink has skyrocketed from $1.4 million to over $18 million in a short period.
The Apple Farm program has been a driving force behind the increased user engagement and transaction activity on Etherlink’s decentralized applications. IguanaDEX, a decentralized exchange on the network, has seen a surge in trading volume, reaching $150 million as users take advantage of reward opportunities and engage in arbitrage trading.
David Relkin, Head of DeFi for the Tezos ecosystem at Nomadic Labs, commented on the success of the Apple Farm initiative, stating, “The success of Apple Farm demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach to incentive programs and the development of this ecosystem.”
A recent report from Messari has highlighted the rapid growth of the Etherlink ecosystem, citing a rise in user accounts and transaction volumes. With over 50 projects currently building on the platform, DeFi protocol Superlend has emerged as a prominent player with significant deposits and active loans.
Technical upgrades to Etherlink’s architecture, such as the Calypso network upgrade in March, have improved smart contract storage speed, reduced disk footprint for operator nodes, and enhanced network resilience. These enhancements aim to support increased throughput and enable faster tez withdrawals between Etherlink and Tezos.
The launch of the 2025 cohort of the Fortify Labs program, hosted by TZ APAC, is expected to further expand Etherlink’s ecosystem. The cohort includes seven projects, with a focus on Etherlink, including BluWhale AI for decentralized analytics, IDRX for an Indonesian Rupiah-pegged stablecoin, and Miomi Game for an eSports platform.