Tether, Circle, and Stripe are all building L1s. Why? Shouldn't these orgs want to go with L2s instead? What mistake are they making, if any? L2s let you control and customize your own chain while remaining part of overall ethereum. A tier-1 fintech like Stripe (who recently paid $1B to acquire stablecoin startup Bridge) is well positioned to understand the "control & customize" product side of L2s - there's no gap there. And certainly there's zero misunderstanding on behalf of cryptonative Tether or Circle as to how L2s work. So why are they all pursuing L1s? I think it's because they are undervaluing the "remaining part of overall ethereum" aspect of L2s. Ethereum is not just a security vending machine. When you opt out of building an L2, you're not just opting out of eth's security. You're also opting out of the unified ethereum economy of trust minimized bridging between the L1 and all other L2s. Tether, Circle, and Stripe may think that this new regulatory environment has presented a good opportunity to pursue a Libra/Diem-style corp L1. But what they're going to find is that by choosing to run an L1, they're adding massive real world risk and friction to all present and future stakeholders. This will act as a major permanent drag coefficient for them as most stakeholders quickly realize they are better off on ethereum. And moving forward, every newly-launched corp L2, mainnet app, novel bridging UX from L1 to L2, etc, will only add another nail in the coffin of these doomed corp alt L1s. Circle and Tether probably won't soon pivot to L2s - they've been around for a decade and their ~opposition to ethereum seems firmly cemented. I say "opposition" because you look at the two biggest businesses on ethereum and they don't even seem to really believe in ethereum. Circle and Tether don't buy ETH, despite having dump trucks of cash mostly earned on the L1. They haven't particularly supported the L1+L2 model in the past years, and now that lack of support has crystallized in the form of launching alt L1s as soon as eth has a big break. Stripe is different, new to ethereum. Stripe already changed its mind once when it realized it had faded onchain and bought Bridge and Privy. Stripe could just build an L2 instead of an L1. Coinbase and Robinhood - two companies that grind out services revenue - could make for better bedfellows for Stripe than Tether and Circle - The latter two companies being on vision quests fueled by a golden goose. Alt L1s are doomed to be too risky and too disconnected. Let's get Stripe on eth L2 instead, it's simply a better strategy @patrickc @collision