l2summer

Don't just focus on airdrops—Linea is quietly rewriting the Web3 business model
"No token L2s are just playing tricks." In 2023, the community mocked Arbitrum with this phrase; in 2024, 6 months after the Linea mainnet launch, the LINEA token was officially launched, yet no one said 'playing tricks' anymore—because everyone realized that Linea's ambition was not to issue tokens and crash the market, but to embed token economics into the entire Web3 business cycle, conducting an experiment of 'value capture 2.0.'
1. From 'subsidy narrative' to 'cash flow narrative'
In the past, L2 attracted yield farmers with airdrop expectations, and TVL was like a roller coaster: 10 billion before the snapshot, 3 billion after. Linea goes against the tide: first, let project parties make money, then let users share protocol income, and finally return the 'real earnings' to LINEA stakers. Taking the on-chain lending protocol Mendi as an example, it has been online for 4 weeks, with accumulated interest income of 2.8 million dollars, of which 30% is used to repurchase LINEA and distribute it to veLINEA holders, with a real-time APR of 38%, and no subsidies. Users discovered for the first time: it turns out that you can also enjoy 'on-chain cash flow' without mining governance tokens.