On August 15, Ronin announced its transformation from an Ethereum sidechain to an L2 solution. Just 5 months ago, Ronin merely announced the expansion of its DeFi business and the integration of games and consumer Dapps as a sidechain. Why did it suddenly embark on the journey of return?
Four years ago, Ethereum's scalability roadmap was still in its early stages. Ronin states that the situation is now vastly different. Ethereum is 'back on top.' Both transaction costs and speeds have reached unprecedented ideal levels. As the underlying infrastructure for popular Web3 games like Axie Infinity, this strategic shift for Ronin not only symbolizes its 're-emergence of the Ethereum craze' but may also herald the evolution of gaming blockchains towards a more mature and scalable direction.
Former Winners
The origin of the Ronin network can be traced back to 2021, developed by the Sky Mavis team, specifically tailored for the phenomenon game Axie Infinity. At that time, the high gas fees and congestion issues of the Ethereum mainnet had become pain points for gamers, and Ronin emerged as a sidechain, providing a low-cost, high-throughput trading environment.
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At its peak, Axie Infinity attracted millions of players, and Ronin's daily active users once exceeded 1 million, driving the global popularity of the 'Play-to-Earn' model.
However, the good times did not last long. In March 2022, Ronin suffered the largest hacking attack in history, with losses amounting to $625 million (approximately NT$18.7 billion) in assets. This incident exposed the shortcomings of sidechains in terms of security and decentralization, leading many to believe that Ronin would decline.
However, the Sky Mavis team has demonstrated remarkable resilience by upgrading the validator mechanism, switching to delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus, and collaborating with institutions like Binance, successfully restoring the network. In August 2024, Ronin also persuaded white hat hackers to return $10 million (approximately NT$300 million) worth of ETH through communication, avoiding further financial losses.
By 2025, Ronin has risen again, with the number of daily active wallets stabilizing at nearly one million, and games within the ecosystem, such as Pixels, Lumiterra, and Fishing Frenzy, remain active. According to data from its official website, the total transaction volume on its on-chain DEX has reached $9.41 billion (approximately NT$282 billion), the total NFT transaction volume has reached $6.47 billion (approximately NT$194 billion), and the current total TVL has risen to $750 million (approximately NT$22.4 billion), with wallet downloads reaching 31 million.
The limitations of sidechains are becoming increasingly apparent.
The catalyst for this transformation lies in the limitations of the sidechain model. As the Ethereum ecosystem rapidly develops, while sidechains can provide independence, they often sacrifice the shared security and liquidity integration with the mainnet.
The Ronin team clearly stated in the announcement: "Ronin is returning to Ethereum, becoming Layer 2." This decision is not a sudden idea but a trend in the industry. By 2025, multiple Layer 1 chains, such as Celo and Cronos, are migrating to the L2 architecture, highlighting L2's advantages in inheriting Ethereum's security while achieving high TPS.
According to data from the Ethereum Foundation, L2 solutions have increased the overall network TPS to over 100,000, driving global adoption. Ronin's transformation will utilize zero-knowledge proof (zk) technology to build zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine), which can maintain compatibility with Ethereum while significantly reducing transaction costs and delays.
The Return of Ethereum King
Ronin's decision to return to Ethereum and transform into a Layer 2 solution is significantly influenced by Ethereum's strong recovery in Q3 2025, with ETH stabilizing above about $4,600 (approximately NT$138,000) in mid-August, close to its historical high.
The market's renewed confidence in Ethereum is also due to the explosive activity within its ecosystem.
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According to DefiLlama data, the total locked value (TVL) of Ethereum's mainnet DeFi has exceeded $94.55 billion (approximately NT$2.84 trillion), far surpassing Solana's $10.83 billion (approximately NT$326 billion), still dominating the DeFi market. This level of activity provides Ronin with a large user base and liquidity pool, ensuring that gaming assets can circulate in the broader Ethereum ecosystem after the transformation, achieving higher adoption rates.
Moreover, Ethereum's future technology roadmap further enhances the appeal of L2 projects. Following the Dencun upgrade in 2024, the Pectra (Prague-Electra) hard fork in Q1 2025 has been successfully deployed, significantly improving network scalability, reducing costs, and optimizing the staking mechanism. Looking ahead, Ethereum plans to advance the Fusaka upgrade by the end of the year, marking its first major upgrade focused on underlying performance optimization after the Pectra upgrade, which includes several core Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Fusaka will significantly increase blob capacity, allowing Layer-2 rollups (like Arbitrum and Optimism) to handle more data and reduce costs, helping transaction throughput reach tens of thousands of TPS.
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Additionally, after the upgrade, node operating costs will decrease, and equipment requirements will lower through Verkle trees and PeerDAS, benefiting the network's further decentralization — including the development of mobile and lightweight client ecosystems.
For Ronin, this attraction means transitioning from an isolated sidechain to a thriving 'modular' ecosystem, enhancing its long-term competitiveness in the Web3 gaming industry.
Migration to be completed in Q2 2026, tokens will be launched on a new 'Allocation Proof.'
In terms of specific transformation details, Ronin plans to complete the migration in the second quarter of 2026, using Polygon's Chain Development Kit (CDK) as the foundation. Ronin will benefit from Ethereum's strong security and decentralization, with transaction speeds increasing by 12 times.
Image Source: Ronin
The enhancement in speed is crucial for games like Axie Infinity, allowing players to conduct NFT transactions and in-game economic activities more smoothly. Secondly, developers will benefit significantly. Ronin will position itself as 'the gaming engine of Ethereum,' attracting more third-party builders to deploy custom L2 chains. New projects such as Cambria Duel Arena, Fableborne, and Angry Dynomites have emerged within the ecosystem, leveraging L2's DeFi integration to achieve a seamless blend of gaming and finance.
It is worth mentioning that after the migration, the $RON token's equity rewards will also be distributed to builders through a new 'Allocation Proof' model.
Image Source: Ronin
In the past few years, rewards for $RON have flowed to governing validators and regular validators to incentivize them to secure the network. However, after this upgrade, RON rewards will flow to governing validators and contributors. This will strengthen the incentive connection between builders and users, initiating a new virtuous cycle centered around the $RON token.
Sky Mavis co-founder Jihoz once stated, "Ronin is the Nintendo of the crypto world." With the progress of the migration, Ronin may hope to rekindle the hopes of chain games.
This article is authorized for reprint from: (Foresight News)
Original Title: (The Return of Ethereum King, Ronin Makes a Comeback to L2)
Original Author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
'Ronin announces the abandonment of the sidechain and transformation into Ethereum L2, is Axie Infinity expected to revive?' This article was first published in 'Crypto City.'
