One Year of Taiko Mainnet: Scaling Ethereum Without Compromise
Taiko Labs
0x5b79
May 27th, 2025

On May 27, 2024, Taiko officially launched its mainnet - an Ethereum-equivalent ZK rollup pioneering a new model called the "based rollup." Since then, Taiko has grown into one of the most technically advanced and community-driven Layer 2 ecosystems. In this special anniversary post, we take a detailed look at the technology, the ecosystem, the numbers, and the people who’ve made it all possible.

Year One Highlights:

  • Mainnet Launch with Vitalik: Deployed Taiko on Ethereum mainnet (May 27, 2024) after 7 public testnets, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposing the inaugural Taiko block – a historic vote of confidence.

  • Skyrocketing Usage: Processed over 700 million transactions (averaging ~2 million daily in Q1 2025) and onboarded 2.4+ million unique wallets – demonstrating massive adoption and scalability.

  • Ecosystem Expansion: Grew to 100+ dApps across DeFi, gaming, NFTs, and more, with Tier-1 protocols (like Curve Finance and EtherFi) joining Taiko and innovative games setting usage records.

  • Technical Breakthroughs: Introduced the Pacaya upgrade enabling initial pre-confirmations, achieved 30%+ ZK-proof coverage (100% on Taiko-proposed blocks), and demonstrated block aggregation (150 blocks in one transaction) – pushing the boundaries of rollup tech.

  • Governance & Decentralization: Launched the Taiko DAO on testnet (Jan 2025) and just went live on mainnet in May, empowering community governance with a Security Council.

  • Community Initiatives: Launched Taiko Takeoff, Taiko Status, and Trailblazers programs to reward builders and users, driving engagement and growth.

  • Major Partnerships: Partnered with OpenZeppelin to co-develop next-gen rollup architecture, and with teams like Nethermind, Gattaca, Chainbound, Commit–Boost and Fabric to pioneer based pre-confirmation solutions.

  • Global Reach: Expanded access to Taiko’s token by integrating with Revolut (opening Taiko to 45 million users) and other platforms, fueling liquidity and awareness.

  • Flagship Events: Hosted the inaugural Based Rollup Summit in San Francisco featuring Vitalik Buterin and other luminaries, and showcased Taiko at major industry events (ETHDenver, Token2049, etc.), solidifying Taiko’s leadership in Ethereum scaling.

Mainnet Launch: A New Era for Ethereum Scaling

Taiko’s mainnet launch marked the beginning of a new chapter for Ethereum scaling. After two years of hard work and 7 testnets exploring designs, the Taiko protocol was finally deployed on Ethereum mainnet on May 27th, 2024. This milestone demonstrated that a rollup can be fully Ethereum-equivalent without sacrificing decentralization or security.

A highlight of the launch was Vitalik Buterin proposing the first Taiko block. The inaugural block’s metadata even contained a personal message from Vitalik:

I'm excited to see that Taiko is launching as a based rollup. Ethereum benefits from L2s taking a plurality of different approaches, and I appreciate them being among the first to go in this direction.

— Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, on Taiko’s launch

Vitalik’s involvement and endorsement underscored the significance of Taiko’s approach. From day one, Taiko embraced Ethereum’s open participation: anyone could run a node, propose blocks, or prove blocks to help secure the network.

Protocol and Technical Milestones

Advancing ZK Rollup Tech

Taiko’s mainnet launched with a bold ambition: to stay fully aligned with Ethereum in both design and values. It delivered on that vision by being the first based rollup to go live, a model that maintains neutrality and decentralization while using Ethereum L1 as the source of sequencing.

Over the past year, significant technical milestones included:

  • 100% of proposer blocks now ZK-proved

  • ZK proof coverage across the network has grown beyond 30%

  • Support for multiple proof systems: ZK-based proofs & TEE-based proofs

Pacaya Upgrade & Pre-confirmations

Speeding up transaction confirmations without sacrificing decentralization is a holy grail for rollups. To tackle this, in Q1 2025 we teamed up with several specialized teams – Nethermind, Gattaca, and Chainbound – to develop pre-confirmation solutions for Taiko.

Pacaya, now live on testnet, introduced based pre-confirmations for ~2s finality. In parallel, Taiko is rolling out Prover-Proposer Separation (PPS) to boost decentralization and throughput, with Shasta set to activate it.

DAO Governance

Another landmark moment was the launch of the Taiko DAO on May 1, 2025. Using Aragon’s optimistic governance framework, it includes:

  • Transparent proposal and voting system

  • Security Council for safeguarding protocol integrity

  • Full mainnet operational governance expected by late June

Onchain Activity: The Numbers Behind the Rollup

Taiko’s growth has been nothing short of exponential. Over the past 12 months, the network processed more than 766 million transactions, with a peak of 5.1 million in a single day (Nov 2024).

The network has seen tremendous user activity:

  • 2.46 million+ unique wallet addresses created

  • 289,000 average daily active users

In DeFi, Taiko's traction continues to rise. According to DeFiLlama, Taiko’s Total Value Locked (TVL) currently sits around $285 million, with $130 million+ in bridged assets from Ethereum and other chains. The stablecoin market on Taiko has grown steadily and now exceeds $25 million.

Ecosystem and Partnerships

Since launch, over 100 dApps have been deployed in the Taiko ecosystem, offering users a rich array of DeFi, gaming, and other Web3 experiences.

Let’s take a closer look at key areas of growth within our ecosystem:

DeFi

A wide range of DeFi applications have launched on Taiko, creating a rich financial landscape:

  • DEXs & Aggregators: Platforms like Oku Trade, iZiswap, Kodo, 1Delta, and Curve Finance bring deep liquidity and smooth trading.

  • Lending: Meridian Finance is live, with more credit protocols coming soon.

  • Derivatives: Projects such as KiloEx and LogX enable advanced trading strategies.

  • Bridges: Integration with Symbiosis, Stargate, Rubic, and others enables seamless cross-chain asset transfers.

  • Asset Management: Gamma and RAI Finance offer vaults and social trading tools.

Gaming

Taiko gaming is thriving:

  • EVM Warfare: skill based gambling third person shooter game

  • Brigade: free-to-play community-pixelverse

  • Intraverse: cross-community, cross-chain and cross-platform gaming experience

  • LooperLands: NFT-based MMO with tens of thousands active players and user-generated worlds.

  • Others: titles like CryptoRumble, RobotsFarm, and StupidMonkeys are pushing the boundaries of onchain gameplay.

Others

Taiko also supports a growing range of tools and novel use-cases:

  • Developer Infrastructure: RPCs (Ankr, BlockPi), indexers (Covalent, Goldsky), oracles (Pyth, API3), and debugging tools (Tenderly).

  • User Tools: Explorers like Etherscan and SocialScan, and analytics via Growthepie.

  • NFTs: Users are actively minting and trading low-fee, high-finality NFTs.

  • SocialFi: From decentralized identities to meme markets, Web3 social apps are emerging.

  • AI + Blockchain: Early AI dApps are testing trustless coordination and computation on Taiko.

Taiko TakeOff & Taiko Status

In February 2025, we launched Taiko Takeoff, an accelerator program supporting projects building on Taiko with exposure, mentorship, and funding. It also offers airdrop opportunities to the community, aligning builders and users.

To complement this, we introduced Taiko Status; a gamified tier system (Bronze to Based) that rewards users based on TAIKO holdings. Higher tiers unlock perks like bonus airdrops and early access to ecosystem events.

Together, these programs accelerate innovation and reward our most dedicated supporters.

Funding and Development Initiatives

Developer engagement is further bolstered by Taiko’s $25 million Ecosystem Grants Fund, launched in March 2025. The accompanying Grant Factory Hackathon, powered by MACI-based voting, set records on DoraHacks and catalyzed dozens of new projects.

Strategically, Taiko’s ecosystem continues to integrate with core Ethereum infrastructure:

  • OpenZeppelin is collaborating on modular rollup tooling

  • Aragon powers Taiko’s governance and DAO processes

  • Succinct, RISC Zero, and Nethermind are developing alternative provers and clients

On the accessibility front, $TAIKO is now listed on major exchanges:

  • Revolut, as one of the first L2 tokens on the app

  • KuCoin, Bybit, Bitget, Gate.io, and others.

Community Growth and Global Presence

Community Initiatives & Programs

Taiko has cultivated one of the most enthusiastic and fast-growing communities in Web3. With over 1 million followers on X and Discord, our community has played a key role in shaping the protocol.

The Trailblazers program has completed four seasons, engaging hundreds of thousands of users through quests, tasks, and gamified learning.

To complement Trailblazers, Taiko also ran monthly Galxe campaigns. These spotlighted emerging ecosystem projects and helped attract new audiences.

Together, these initiatives played a critical role in onboarding, rewarding, and activating the Taiko community.

We also prioritized education and accessibility. Throughout the year, the team:

  • Published dozens of educational blog posts

  • Released multiple YouTube explainer videos

Events

Taiko’s global visibility grew rapidly through its presence at major blockchain events. Over the past year, the team participated in:

  • Token2049 Singapore

  • Korea Blockchain Week

  • Foresight 2024 Annual Summit

  • ETHDenver

  • Devcon Southeast Asia

  • ETH CC

  • ETHSF

  • Consensus

  • EthereumAsia

  • Digital Asset Summit

  • and more …

At these events, we led panels, delivered workshops, hosted booths, and connected with builders, researchers, and fellow ecosystem contributors. These efforts have helped Taiko grow not just as a Layer 2 solution, but as a trusted and visible voice in the global Ethereum landscape.

Media Coverage

Taiko’s momentum has caught the attention of the wider crypto media. In the past year, dozens of articles and interviews about Taiko have been published in mainstream outlets. We’ve been featured in The Block, Yahoo Finance, CoinTelegraph, newsletters, participated in podcasts with Bankless, The Rollup, and more.

Whether it’s coverage of our mainnet launch, analysis of our technology, or thought pieces on Ethereum’s roadmap, the media has recognized Taiko as a major player in the Layer 2 space.

Based Rollup Summit

One of the defining events of Taiko’s first year was the inaugural Based Rollup Summit, held in March 2025. It brought together top minds from the Ethereum community, Vitalik Buterin included, to explore the evolving role of rollups and sequencing. The summit emphasized Taiko’s commitment to decentralization, neutrality, and open research.

Perhaps most importantly, it cemented Taiko’s reputation as a thought leader: we’re not just building a rollup, we’re defining what the next generation of rollups will look like. We plan to make the Based Rollup Summit a recurring event – so stay tuned for more basedness!

Looking Ahead

The past year has been incredible, but in many ways Taiko is just getting started. As we look to the rest of 2025 and beyond, we remain laser-focused on a few key priorities:

Based Pre-confirmations

Our top priority is bringing based pre-confirmations to mainnet as soon as possible. In the coming weeks and months, we will activate pre-confirmations on Taiko, giving users transaction confirmations that feel instantaneous for everyday use cases.

DAO Empowerment

With the Taiko DAO now live on mainnet, we will continue to decentralize governance. Over the next year, control of protocol upgrades, parameters, and treasury will increasingly shift to tokenholders. We’ll be rolling out on-chain voting for major decisions and expanding community involvement in proposal discussions.

Gwyneth Development

Work continues on Taiko Gwyneth, our synchronously composable booster rollup. After the successful demos and ULTRA TX implementation in Q1, the next steps are launching a Gwyneth devnet, gathering developer feedback, and then a public testnet later in 2025.

Community Growth

We will continue to grow and reward our amazing community. Ongoing programs like Trailblazers, Taiko Takeoff, and Taiko Status will evolve with new challenges and perks.

The community’s passion is what drives us, so we want to create as many avenues as possible for people to contribute and be recognized, whether you’re a developer, content creator, or just an avid user.

Upcoming Events

After the success of our first Based Rollup Summit, you can bet we’re planning more! In Q2 and Q3 2025, we’ll be present at all the major Ethereum events – and hosting another summit of our own in Cannes.

Building on that momentum, the second Based Rollup Summit will take place during ETH CC in Cannes on July 1st, 2025. Expect remarkable speakers, sponsors, and guests from across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Keep an eye out for Taiko at ECC, DevConnect, ETHGlobal hackathons, and more.

Thank You to Our Community

None of Taiko’s achievements would have been possible without you – our community of developers, users, and supporters around the globe. Your enthusiasm, feedback, and belief in Taiko have been the fuel powering this rocket ship of a year.

From testing early prototypes on testnet, to providing critical input on governance, to simply spreading the word about Taiko, our community has been nothing short of incredible.

We cannot thank you enough for joining us on this journey.

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