Thanks to its successful incentive program, Etherlink TVL and its ecosystem are experiencing incredible growth. It’s been a fantastic piece of news, with the total value locked into the EVM-compatible Layer 2 solution built on Tezos Smart Rollups skyrocketing. Etherlink’s TVL increased nearly twelve times in less than a few weeks, from $1.4 million to over $18 million. It is true that this exceptional growth is attributable directly to the platform’s $3 million Apple Farm rewards initiative.

Key-Takeaways:

• In just weeks, Etherlink TVL went to 12x, from $1.4 million to over $18 million in the oncoming months as a result of the $3 million Apple Farm rewards program.
• Users rushed to take rewards and arbitrage opportunities in the Etherlink ecosystem, and IguanaDEX collected $150 million in trading volume.
• $16.93 million in deposits and $10.49 million in active loans represented Etherlink as a rallying superlend protocol.
• With the team behind the Calypso network upgrade, their smart contract storage 30x faster, and more resilient, the network support placed increased pressure on Etherlink’s rapid growth.

How Apple Farm Drives Ecosystem Adoption

Etherlink has transformed its network activity with strategic incentives since leaving its beta phase in February. The Apple Farm program helps its users traffic to different generalized applications in the network. Across the platform’s ever-growing ecosystem, there are reward opportunities that are actively sought out by users. Building on such a proven approach for growth, it has been highly effective.

However, this incentive structure is a major beneficiary for IguanaDEX. The trading volume the decentralized exchange posted was an impressive $150 million. The platform attracted users to earn as well as arbitrage trade opportunities. The rise of so much activity here is the power of well-designed incentives to rapidly drive adoption.

Key Growth Metrics and Platform Development

According to a Messari report published recently, Etherlink is growing consistently in terms of several important metrics. Rising transaction volumes go parallel with an increase in user accounts. Active projects: more than 50. The ecosystems’ foundations are strengthened by this variety of development activity.

As the first DeFi protocol on Superlend, it has emerged as the stellar protocol in the Etherlink network. Users who have deposited to the lending platform have added up to $16.93 million. Superlend also indicates $10.49 million in active loans. It gives a representation of increasing trust in Etherlink’s infrastructure for financial applications.

Technical Improvements Support Ecosystem Expansion

The technical improvements in Etherlink’s March deployment of the Calypso network upgrade were notable. It also managed to speed up smart contract storage by 30 times. A smaller disk footprint makes operator nodes more efficient. With that, the network now has higher resilience to surges in activity.

The decision was made by Head of DeFi at Nomadic Labs in the Tezos ecosystem, David Relkin. Relkin is alluding to the success of Apple Farm, which demonstrates, she said, the effectiveness of our approach to incentive programs. These technical improvements are useful in order to support continued growth of the network as well as increased transaction throughput.

Future Prospects and New Projects

The Fortify Labs program continues to expand into the ecosystem with the release of the 2025 cohort of the Fortify Labs program. Launched by TZ APAC, these include projects on Etherlink, 7 of which mostly build on top of it. There are various new projects put forth for use cases across the spectrum of the blockchain.

BluWhale AI is among the notable projects by the creators working on decentralized analytics solutions. IDRX is a stablecoin tied to the Indonesian Rupiah that it is developing for regional users. By using the blockchain technology, Miomi Games wishes to create an eSports platform. Etherlink’s versatility is shown in these projects over different application domains.

Etherlink’s momentum is a vast win for the whole of the Tezos ecosystem. Etherlink is an EVM-compatible Layer 2, thus closing the gap between Tezos and Ethereum developers. It is a factor that enables development on multiple platforms and the migration of users.

Conclusion: Etherlink TVL

This front clip enhances interoperability between the platforms and gives better connectivity, which strengthens the connections and provides a smooth transition back and forth. Further steps taken by the Tezos ecosystem should follow Etherlink’s model of a success incentive program. And with further development and incentives, Etherlink TVL becomes a rising Layer 2 star. But the fact that its TVL was growing impressively well showed the effectiveness of well-designed ecosystem incentives.