Skeptics of Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap have speculated that layer-2 networks might eventually peel away from the ecosystem. The concern was that rollup teams would grow tired of paying Ethereum’s data availability fees and break off into sovereign layer-1 chains with their own validators.
But so far, that hasn’t happened. Instead, the gravitational pull has flowed the other way: independent layer-1s are re-architecting themselves as Ethereum L2s.
Celo and Lisk are two prominent examples. Celo, which launched in 2020, aimed to build a mobile-first, payments-centric L1 with its own stablecoins and identity layer. Lisk, on the other hand, dates back to 2016 with a focus on onboarding JavaScript developers through a custom SDK and sidechains.
By the 2022–2023 bear market, both faced challenges common to many mid-tier L1s: limited liquidity, fragmented developer ecosystems, and difficulty attracting and retaining users beyond niche use cases.
Instead of doubling down on independence, both chains chose to integrate with Ethereum. Celo completed its migration in March 2025, rebranding as an OP Stack rollup using EigenDA for data availability.
Rene Reinsberg, Celo co-founder, stated, “It was the right time to return home to Ethereum,” highlighting new infrastructure like rollup-in-a-box stacks that allowed Celo to maintain its technical advantages while gaining Ethereum’s security, community, and network effects.
Celo’s community overwhelmingly supported the shift, with unanimous votes through onchain governance and open forums. “Building in the open was, and remains, a core priority,” Reinsberg added.
The results are evident in the metrics. Celo now boasts over 600,000 daily active users, with stablecoin transfers exceeding 123 million across more than 1.1 million wallets. The chain also reports over $1 billion in monthly stablecoin volume and a 365% increase in protocol revenue since the migration. Celo’s onchain FX platform, Mento, recently processed over $200 million in a single day.
Real-world applications like MiniPay, a mobile wallet integrated with Opera’s browser, have been driving much of Celo’s usage. The team noted that MiniPay recently surpassed 8 million activated wallets, while DeFi integrations with Aave V3 have seen initial supply caps reached, prompting governance to raise limits for USDT, ETH, and CELO.
Lisk followed a similar path, migrating its LSK token to Ethereum in May 2024 and relaunching as an OP Stack rollup using Ethereum’s blobspace for DA. Its “DAO Season 1” campaign attracted over 277,000 new accounts and 48 million transactions, with a focus on distribution and Ethereum-native interoperability for growth.
Dominic Schwenter, COO of Lisk, emphasized, “The so‑called ‘crisis’ in Ethereum was never truly real, because Ethereum has never been just another ecosystem. Projects are joining the Ethereum ecosystem to interoperate, not compete, setting the standard for decentralized technology scalability.”
In contrast to the feared L2-to-L1 narrative, there are virtually no examples of successful pivots. Major rollups like Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, zkSync, and others remain anchored to Ethereum, showcasing the ecosystem’s strength and attractiveness for projects seeking interoperability.