Arbitrum transaction ordering system Timeboost generates $2 million in fees within three months of launch

Arbitrum’s Timeboost, a transaction ordering policy introduced to improve efficiency and reduce MEV issues on Arbitrum ecosystem chains, has generated $2 million in fees since its launch in April 2025, according to Dune data.

The system, which allows users to bid for priority in transaction sequencing via an “express lane,” has become a notable revenue stream for the Arbitrum DAO. Timeboost is live on both Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova.

Timeboost has processed hundreds of thousands of transactions, particularly in high-frequency DeFi trading, with 20–30% of daily DEX volume on Arbitrum using the mechanism.

Arbitrum chains currently process transactions on a First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) basis, which has drawbacks, particularly as MEV searchers often flood the network with transactions to secure inclusion, causing congestion and inefficiencies. To mitigate this, Offchain Labs introduced Timeboost, a mechanism that enables MEV searchers to bid for transaction priority.

Timeboost modifies FCFS by adding a sealed-bid, second-price auction to control an “express lane.”

It enables chain owners to capture MEV revenue, reduce network spam, and maintain fast block times while continuing to protect users from front-running and sandwich attacks.

Besides curbing spam and congestion, it also serves to capture value for the Arbitrum ecosystem. However, concerns exist about potential centralization risks, as monetizing sequencer revenue might reduce incentives to decentralize the sequencer.

Arbitrum, as an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, generates revenue and fees through several mechanisms beyond the Timeboost transaction ordering policy.

It charges Layer 1 transaction fees to users to cover the cost of posting transaction data (calldata) to the Ethereum mainnet (Layer 1) for security and finality.

There are also Layer 2 fees, which cover the operational costs of running the Arbitrum network, including computation and storage on the Layer 2 chain. All L2 fees and surplus L1 fees (after covering Ethereum costs) are sent to the Arbitrum DAO treasury. Currently, the Arbitrum DAO treasury holds about 3.5 billion ARB tokens, valued at roughly $1.3 billion.