Sunday morning, the rain is tapping outside the window of the apartment in district 2, I woke up a bit late because I coded freelance until late last night, quickly made a strong filter coffee and sat at the familiar corner of the table. Open X (@retirequiver update chill here guys), the feed jumps to an announcement from @LineaBuild: "Surge campaign phase 2 live, incentives boost for Aave and Etherex, TVL is climbing back after the dip". I nod, remembering 4 years ago in Da Nang, beach coffee with a dev friend discussing the future of zkRollup, randomly allocating into testnet airdrop and then completely forgetting about it. Now in 2025, experience teaches me: crypto is about building ecosystems, not chasing short-term airdrops.
Linea is solidifying its position as the zkEVM leader, fully EVM-equivalent with native zk proofs, enabling Ethereum scaling without compromising security. Mainnet alpha launched in 2023, but the Exponent upgrade in 2025 pushes the limits: TPS of 6,500, gas fees 28 times cheaper than mainnet, and direct ETH payments avoiding token volatility. DefiLlama update: TVL currently at $645 million, bridged assets at $558 million (up 2.7% in 24h due to inflows of $6.2 million), native liquidity at $78 million. DEX volume over 7 days surged to $448 million, perps weekly volume at $172 million, stablecoin market cap stabilizing after a 25% dip last week. Ecosystem is booming: 365 dApps live, DAU at 325,000 (up 510% YoY), total transactions processed surpassing 245 million — strong signs of organic adoption.
What I love most is the smart tokenomics with the dual-burn mechanism: since early November, 19,500 ETH ($68k) and 22 million $LINEA ($255k) have been burned. Track in real-time via the Dune dashboard, with direct link between fees and scarcity. The Surge campaign (targeting $3 billion TVL in the remaining 5 months) distributes incentives through Voyage LXP quests and Ignition leftovers: Aave rewards based on TVL milestones, Etherex inverted curve for slippage swaps, and Euler under-utilized pools boosting APY by 12-15%. High-quality partnerships: ConsenSys + MetaMask integrating the ZK rewards card for 35 million users, Brevis Pico ZKVM enabling transparent verification, LayerZero connecting 14 chains including Base, zkSync, and Sei for seamless cross-chain experience. Most recently, RedStone oracles are pushing data feeds for DeFi Vietnam pilots.
Yesterday at Lotte supermarket, I ran into an old friend working in fintech and asked, 'Which Layer 2 is easiest to develop on, bro?' I shared: 'Linea zkEVM — code deployment feels like mainnet, with cheap fees.' He invited, 'Let’s allocate $L$LINEA ong?' I gently advised: 'Try 1-2% of your portfolio, hold long-term for 2 years, DYOR — governance DAO vote is coming soon.' Because Linea Association (Switzerland) is pushing decentralization Stage 1 with state reconstruction complete, the community Telegram VN group is active with weekly dev calls — no hype, just action.
My mom called me from Binh Dinh village this noon asking, 'Dear, is it as safe as Bitcoin?' I smiled and said, 'Mom, it connects to Ethereum, backed by ConsenSys, I'm holding a small amount for sustainable yield farming, and remittances back home will be zero fee someday.' Crypto taught me patience: from FOMO in 2021 to building freelance dApps on the Linea testnet. Imagine Vietnamese devs minting NFT Artefact game collabs with Neal Stephenson — the web3 gaming boom is coming.
On a rainy day like this, sitting and listening to acoustic Vietnamese music, watching the Linea dashboard tick slightly green. Not getting rich fast, but betting on the zk future. Folks @retirequiver, follow along for crypto chats from Vietnam, wise allocation, DYOR, and chill through the rain, bro. Hold the zk vision!
