The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world Binance announced today that it has integrated the Optimism layer 2 scaling solution.

However, the exchange only supports deposits at the moment; withdrawals are not available until the exchange has reached optimal liquidity, the exchange explained.

“Binance will open withdrawals for ETH on Optimism Network once there are enough assets in our wallet,” read the announcement.

Optimism is a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum aimed to help reduce costs and improve transaction speeds, an Achilles heel for many blockchain networks.

As Ethereum has become the primary hub for various Challenge and NFT activities, costs on the network have consistently skyrocketed amid Market volatilitya popular NFT dropor due to the emergence of a new yield farm.

Scaling solutions like PolygonArbitrum and Optimism emerged to address precisely these issues.

The costs associated with a blockchain transaction are basically the cost of processing and storing information. These solutions essentially take the business away from the expensive mainnet. Once a series of transactions or cryptographic operations are concluded, the results of these activities (who owns which coins and how many, for example) are then sent and secured on the mainnet.

These ease congestion by reducing the amount of information a base layer blockchain needs to validate and secure.

Optimism’s gas cost, for example, is currently 98 times lower than Ethereum’s, according to data from Dune analysis.

Optimistic growth for the Ethereum scaler

Optimism has been growing in popularity lately, with a total value locked (TVL) standing at $304.1 million and nearly 40 different DeFi projects using the technology, according to data from Llama Challenge.

Besides Binance, other cryptocurrency exchanges have also taken steps to integrate Layer 2 networks.

FTX, the fast growing exchange led by Sam Bankman Friedpossesses integrated Arbitrum, another Ethereum scaling solution. KuCoin too additional support for Optimism in April 2022.

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