OP Stack vs Arbitrum Orbit: Which Stack Should You Choose?

tl;dr

• OP Stack: Standardized, Superchain-compatible, but imposes governance constraints and protocol tax for participation
• Arbitrum Orbit: Highly customizable and autonomous, but extractive licensing and revenue sharing reduce long-term flexibility.
• Both stacks trade sovereignty for ecosystem lock-in, adding cost and limiting independence.
• Agglayer CDK is a multistack (OP, Erigon, currently, with Orbit support being explored) chain-building kit with ZK security, interoperability, and no protocol tax.
• Build sovereign, enterprise-ready chains with Agglayer for interoperable, cost-efficient, and future-proof blockchains.

Crypto is more modular than ever, providing institutions and builders many different ways to launch custom blockchains. Recent innovation has opened the gateway to sector-specific chains, with major interest from enterprises looking to expand into blockchain and tap Ethereum’s deep, liquid markets. 

Among the most popular stacks helping industries get there are OP Stack and Arbitrum Orbit.

But choosing the right stack to build your custom chain requires thinking through performance, interoperability, sovereignty, and access to a unified Web3.

Several major enterprises are taking distinct approaches in choosing blockchain stacks. Robinhood recently announced it is building an Ethereum Layer 2 using Arbitrum Orbit. By leveraging Orbit’s flexible architecture, Robinhood aims to create a scalable platform for tokenized assets like stocks and ETFs. 

On the other side, Base Chain, Coinbase’s OP Stack-powered Layer 2, has rapidly become the most prominent member of the Optimism Superchain, securing over $14.5B in total value as of mid-2025. With deep liquidity from Coinbase and simplified onboarding, plus the promise of interoperability through Superchain, Base shows how OP Stack has been adopted for performant, sector-specific chains.

Each of these stacks promise ease in development, fast settlement, low fees, and crucially, interoperability. 

But each stack also locks respective builders into self-serving ecosystems. 

Joining the Superchain means following the Law of Chains and assenting to a tax (either 2.5% of chain revenue or 15% of onchain profit) in order to access interoperability. Although the details about Robinhood Chain are sparse, Arbitrum also imposes a revenue share and licensing agreement with Orbit chains that aren;t configured as Layer 3s that settle to Arbitrum One. Optimistic chains are also subject to a 7-day withdrawal period for assets moving off of the Layer 2 through a canonical bridge—immensely slowing capital and curbing interoperability, except by introducing third-party bridges, which bring added security challenges, assumptions, and price premiums for end users.

Developers shouldn’t have to choose, and crypto shouldn’t be so fragmented. 

Luckily, there’s an alternative. Agglayer CDK by Polygon Labs is a multistack toolkit that offers native interoperability and easy user and developer experience, without the extractive fees. With recently added native support for OP Stack and support for more stacks coming soon, Agglayer CDK builds across isolated ecosystems, bringing ZK security to optimistic chain performance in one bundle.

And with native interoperability for all other chains connected to Agglayer’s bridge, Agglayer CDK brings the upside of high-performant chains without hidden fees or taxes for interop. 

So—which stack should you choose?

What is OP Stack?

The OP Stack is the open-source toolkit powering Optimism and the emerging Superchain vision. It provides a standardized set of modules—consensus, execution, settlement—that make it easy to launch Ethereum-compatible rollups.

Why builders like OP Stack:

• Built on Geth, Ethereum’s most widely used execution client.
• Superchain compatibility via the Optimism Collective.
• Modular layers, from DA to governance.
• Performance: Up to 60–100+ Mgas/s throughput.
• Shared standards, simplifying ecosystem coordination.

OP Stack has proven it can scale L2s rapidly while remaining EVM-equivalent and dev-friendly. A number of DeFi-focused and enterprise chains have launched with OP Stack, including Uniswap’s Unichain and Kraken’s Ink, 

What is Arbitrum Orbit?

Orbit is Arbitrum’s framework for launching customizable chains using the Nitro stack. It gives enterprises granular control over nearly every part of the chain—from data availability to execution environments.

Why builders choose Arbitrum Orbit:

• Customizable everything: gas token, throughput, governance, precompiles.
• L2 or L3: Deploy on Ethereum or any Arbitrum L2.
• Stylus for EVM+ compatibility (Rust, C++, etc.).
• AnyTrust option for lower DA costs via DACs 
• Nitro extensibility with upgradeable tooling.

Orbit is ideal for projects building complex ecosystems or needing fine-tuned protocol logic while still inheriting Ethereum’s security guarantees.

Some Business Implications

Both OP Stack and Arbitrum Orbit have business tradeoffs. 

OP Stack requires builders to conform to collective standards if they want to join the Superchain and mandates revenue sharing, sacrificing some sovereignty for access to the promise of a still-forthcoming interoperable ecosystem. 

Otherwise, developers can fork OP Stack under the permissive open source license and launch custom chains, but without access to the Superchain. 

Arbitrum Orbit offers significantly greater governance autonomy and customizability, but it imposes substantial revenue-sharing obligations. Unlike OP Stack, which is open source under an MIT license, there is Business Source licensing for the Orbit stack itself, unless a new chain settles to Arbitrum One or Arbitrum Nova. 

OP Stack

• Revenue Share and Taxation: Builders adopting OP Stack must agree to the "Law of Chains," which involves revenue sharing. Chains that join the Superchain are subject to a tax: either 2.5% of total chain revenue or 15% of on-chain profit.
• Governance and Sovereignty: OP Stack chains follow unified standards and require collective governance through the Optimism Collective. This governance offers economic autonomy within set boundaries but restricts full sovereignty, especially when enforcing uniform upgrades or configurations mandated by the collective.
• Lock-in and Interoperability Costs: Joining the Superchain ecosystem means builders lose some flexibility to independently manage their economic models or technical configurations, due to required universal governance-approved upgrades. Thus, economic autonomy is conditional, and independence from the platform's collective decisions is limited.

Arbitrum Orbit

• Revenue Share and Licensing: Chains using Arbitrum Orbit must pay a revenue share: 10% protocol net revenue under the Arbitrum Expansion Program (AEP), or 8% to the DAO and 2% to a developer guild for Orbit chains settling to chains other than Arbitrum One or Nova.
• Governance Freedom: Arbitrum Orbit grants significantly more governance flexibility compared to OP Stack. Builders can independently manage and customize their chain configurations, such as gas tokens, data availability solutions, and sequencing methods. Chains can function autonomously and are not required to participate in the broader Arbitrum DAO governance.
• Customizability vs. Extractive Model: Although Arbitrum Orbit enables builders to highly customize their stacks, it is inherently an extractive model due to mandatory revenue sharing with the Arbitrum Foundation or DAO. While the customization is attractive, long-term economic implications of this revenue extraction must be evaluated critically.

Both stacks represent extractive models that require careful consideration of governance, sovereignty, economic autonomy, and long-term business implications.

Head-to-Head: OP Stack vs Arbitrum Orbit

Agglayer CDK: The Best of Both Worlds—And More

Instead of picking one side, Agglayer CDK gives enterprises full choice for custom-designing a chain, without ecosystem lock in, extractive fees, or hidden licensing requirements.

Builders have a multistack environment to choose from: Agglayer CDK OP Stack, but powered by ZK; or the original ZK stack, Erigon, for battle-tested reliability, with more stacks in the future—and all with native connectivity to Agglayer.

Key benefits of Agglayer CDK:

• Multistack options: Currently supports both cdk-opgeth and cdk-erigon.
• Native Agglayer connection: Unified liquidity and seamless crosschain UX.
• No protocol tax: Chains don’t pay rent to connect.
• Performance:
  
  • cdk-opgeth with Conduit G2 sequencer: 60–100+ Mgas/s
  • cdk-erigon: custom gas tokens, ZK security, 99.95% uptime
• Security: Pessimistic proof and chain-specific validity proofs (ZK) for added security
• Future-proof: Additional stacks such as Orbit can be supported

Why lock into one ecosystem when you can access them all?

Crypto is about freedom.

With Agglayer CDK, builders no longer have to pick between OP Stack’s popularity or Arbitrum Orbit’s flexibility. 

You can launch chains using whichever stack best fits your needs, and tap into the interoperability, liquidity, and security of Agglayer.

As more stacks become Agglayer-native, Agglayer will remain the aggregation layer for all of Web3.

Final Verdict: Choose sovereignty. Choose interop. Choose Agglayer.

Both OP Stack and Arbitrum Orbit are powerful tools. But building for Web3’s future shouldn’t mean being locked into one protocol.

Agglayer CDK empowers you to build your chain your way—on your terms, with your stack, and with seamless access to a secure, unified, crosschain world.

Ready to launch? Explore the Agglayer CDK developer docs or reach out to implementation providers like Conduit and Gateway.fm.

FAQ

Is OP Stack better than Arbitrum Orbit?

Not necessarily. OP Stack offers standardization and Superchain compatibility, while Orbit offers flexibility and customizability. The best choice depends on your use case—or better yet, use Agglayer CDK and don’t choose at all.

Can Agglayer support Arbitrum Orbit?

Not today, but Agglayer CDK is already multistack, and support for Orbit is being explored.

What is the Agglayer CDK?

It’s a multistack toolkit for building custom chains with native Agglayer integration. It currently supports OP Stack and Erigon, with more on the way.