TrueFi launches on Optimism, expanding access to on-chain credit

Several projects have launched on Optimism this year with the goal of giving users instant transactions and lower gas fees.

Unsecured lending protocol TrueFi has become the latest project to launch on Optimism, Ethereum’s popular layer-2 scaling solution, in a move that’s expected to boost demand from non-institutional lenders. 

By launching on Optimism, TrueFi’s lender community will have access to a faster and cheaper user experience, as well as gain exposure to a wider pool of retail lenders. “TrueFi users can now lend, borrow and launch portfolios on Optimism to enjoy dramatically reduced transaction costs and network speeds,” Rafael Cosman, co-founder of TrustToken, told Cointelegraph in a written statement. He further explained:

“Since Optimism transactions are on average 77x cheaper than Ethereum, we expect greater adoption from non-institutional lenders, hopefully increasing global access to TrueFi’s financial opportunities.”

TrueFi was built by stablecoin operator TrustToken and shipped to institutional clients in November 2020. In February, TrustToken launched a new lending marketplace on TrueFi designed to give financial institutions the ability to design and launch their own financial products.

Related: Balancer launches on Ethereum L2 network Optimism

There are currently over 40 protocols deployed on Optimism, a sign that more projects were looking to take advantage of improved functionalities such as higher scalability and lower fees. Optimism has been designed to support all decentralized applications running on Ethereum via Optimistic Rollups, a scaling solution that operates in tandem with Ethereum’s main chain.

With more projects deploying on Optimism, the chain’s total value locked, or TVL, has spiked over the past week. Currently, network TVL is over $369 million, which is an increase of nearly $100 million since May 29. Network TVL peaked in late April above $510 million.