Crypto
A Day After the Layer-2 Crash, Optimism Rose 21%. Starknet Didn't Move
OP gained 21.08% on October 13 to $0.1585, its highest close since May 10. ZKsync rose 11.37%, Celestia 8.16% and Arbitrum 6.46% — while Starknet, the token that led the sector up and down, closed flat at $0.0852.
On October 12, the layer-2 sector unwound: Starknet fell 30.94% and Arbitrum, Optimism and ZKsync lost 8-12% each. On October 13 the money came back — but not to the same places.
Optimism's OP led. After falling 8.91% on Monday, it gained 21.08% to $0.1585, its highest close since May 10, on about $20 million of volume, 2.3 times its average. The rise was steady rather than sudden, with no single hour above +4.5%, and continued into the early hours of October 14, when OP touched $0.1625. ZKsync's ZK rose 11.37% to $0.01626, its highest close since May 15. Celestia's TIA, which provides data storage for rollups, gained 8.16%, and Arbitrum 6.46% to $0.1913.
Starknet's STRK, which had more than doubled in four days before Monday's crash, closed at $0.08522, up just 0.20%. It traded as high as $0.0934 during the day but could not hold any of it.
That split is typical after a sector rally breaks. The token that rose the most during the run usually has the most holders sitting on losses after the crash, and they tend to sell into any bounce. Laggards from the earlier run, like OP and ZK, have fewer trapped buyers above them, which makes it easier for them to rise when buyers return to the theme.
Ether, the asset all of these networks settle on, rose 2.08% to $2,497.95. A layer-2 rally that keeps outpacing ether is a sign of genuine interest in the sector; one that only follows ether's moves usually fades with it.