What is Arbitrum (ARB)?
ARB is the governance token of Arbitrum, an Ethereum scaling network originally built by Offchain Labs. The token arrived in March 2023 through an airdrop to early users and DAOs, which also handed control of the protocol's treasury and upgrades to the Arbitrum DAO.
- Type
- Ethereum layer-2 governance token
- Launched
- 2023
- Consensus
- Secured by Ethereum (optimistic rollup)
- Max supply
- No fixed cap (10 billion initial, up to 2% yearly by DAO vote)
- Swap network
- Arbitrum
- Sector (Messari)
- Scaling Solutions
How Arbitrum works
Arbitrum One is an optimistic rollup: it executes transactions off Ethereum, posts compressed data back to Ethereum, and treats results as valid unless someone proves fraud during a challenge period. ARB holders, or delegates they choose, vote on changes to the protocol, its parameters and the DAO treasury.
What ARB is used for
People use ARB to vote on or delegate votes in Arbitrum governance, and it is widely traded and used as collateral in DeFi on Arbitrum. It is not the network's gas token; fees on Arbitrum One are paid in ETH.
ARB supply
Ten billion ARB were created at launch. The DAO may mint up to 2% of supply per year, but only through a constitutional governance vote.
Before you swap ARB
Moving ARB on Arbitrum One requires a small amount of ETH on Arbitrum for gas, not ARB. Check that the receiving wallet or exchange accepts ARB on Arbitrum One, since a version also exists on Ethereum mainnet.