Arbitrum’s Blockchain Stalls for Over An Hour Over Network Traffic Surge

Layer 2 network Arbitrum saw its blockchain fail to produce a block or process transactions for at least two hours on Friday. According to Arbitrum, the blackout was due to a stall in one of its sequencers during a notable uptick in network traffic.

Arbitrum’s network stalled around 10.29 am ET, putting the blockchain’s users in suspense. Howbeit, Arbitrum assured users that they were on the issue and would resolve the issue soon.

“We are working to resolve as quickly as possible and will provide a post-mortem as soon as possible,” the Ethereum layer 2 network tweeted.

The network’s scheduled X space also ended just a few minutes after it resumed due to the temporary outage, with users panicking about the state of their trades.

Network Traffic Surge

According to data from Dune, about 90% of the transactions on the failed sequencer before the stall were inscriptions. Inscriptions are metadata added to the Bitcoin blockchain to produce NFT-like digital assets. Ordinals like SATS and ORDI are products of transactions like this.

Arbitrum also confirmed the surge while announcing its restart and blamed it as the cause of the sequencer failure. The network also solicited that users bear with the increase in gas prices that the backlog of transactions would bring about. Etherscan shows that Arbitrum’s transaction fees have increased 300% since its restart.

https://twitter.com/arbitrum/status/1735754732990267881

Ready for the Bull Run?

Arbitrum experienced its second outage of the year after the same scenario played out in June. These stalls come when the famous bull run, which brings outrageous on-chain transactions with it, has not fully started.

The outage also brought into question the decentralized and stable state of Layer 2s. Coinbase’s Base also stalled in September for what it described as “a part of its infrastructure requiring a refresh.”

Arbitrum’s price dumped 4% amidst the temporary outage, dropping to $1.13 at press time.