Picking up from where we left off, Linea has the structure, liquidity, and backing.

The next question is simple: what is it actually worth right now?

1. What the numbers tell you at first glance

On paper, Linea looks like one of the cheapest networks in the L2 space.

It holds around $1.5 billion in TVL, but its market cap is only about $430 million - a fraction of what Arbitrum or Optimism trade at.

By that ratio alone, Linea should be worth more.

But valuation isn't just about surface math.

It's about how value actually flows through the system, and right now, most of that flow skips the token entirely.

2. Why the market might be right

Linea still relies on ETH as its gas token.

According to Linea's official documentation, “Transactions on Linea are paid in ETH, the native gas token of the network.”

That choice keeps the network fully compatible with Ethereum tooling, but it also means the $LINEA token doesn't capture any of the network's transaction revenue yet.

The burn-and-redistribution model mentioned in Linea’s earlier roadmap is still in testnet phase as of Q3 2025, and not active on mainnet.

So even if activity rises, token holders don’t benefit directly.

The market understands that. It's not ignoring Linea, it's just waiting for the economics to catch up to the technology.

3. The weight of unlocks

Only about 22 percent of supply is in circulation.

The remaining 78 percent, roughly 56 billion tokens, will unlock gradually over several years.

That's a steady stream of new supply entering the market.

If usage and fees don't grow at least as fast as the unlock rate (around 1.5 billion tokens per month), the price will keep feeling heavy even as TVL expands.

4. The fair value window and the math behind it

Here's where the numbers land when you actually model them:

Current Mcap/TVL ratio ≈ 0.28x

Average among peers (Base, Arbitrum, Optimism) ≈ 1.0x

If Linea traded at a 1x ratio like its peers, that implies:

1 x $1.54 B = $1.54 B market cap >> about $0.097 per token.

But since the token doesn't yet capture network fees, a 50% discount is reasonable, which brings it down to around $0.045–$0.05.

Add in dilution from future unlocks and the lower bound slips to $0.02, while a full fee-capture rollout and stronger adoption could push it toward $0.08–$0.09.

At today's $0.026, Linea sits near the middle of that range - basically fair value for its current stage.

Not a deep bargain, not overpriced.

Just early.

5. What can change that

There are three main levers that could shift the valuation:

  1. Fee-burn activation: redirecting a portion of ETH flow into the $LINEA token.

  2. Consensys-driven adoption: pilots like the SWIFT integration turning into measurable on-chain volume.

  3. Liquidity retention: users staying after incentives fade, proving the network’s stickiness.

Without these, price action will likely remain muted regardless of how impressive the TVL looks.

6. The real undervaluation question

Linea doesn't look cheap because the market missed it.

It looks cheap because the token still doesn't represent the network.

That's not a flaw, it's just unfinished economics.

When that gap closes, when the token actually shares in the network's growth... valuation will adjust naturally.

Until then, Linea stays what it already is: a technically strong chain still figuring out how to make its token matter.