Linea previews ETH-first roadmap
The network is pursuing a yield-bearing ETH bridge, fee burns and massive token allocation
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Linea, the layer-2 built by Consensys, is making a play to become Ethereum’s most aligned rollup. In an updated roadmap announced Tuesday, the network committed to three headline features: native staking for bridged ETH, a protocol-level ETH burn equal to 20% of net fees, and an 85% token allocation to builders and users. Together, the features aim to make ETH on Linea not just more productive, but a scarcer asset.
If the idea of ETH yield as a layer-2 core feature sounds familiar, it’s because Linea is drawing clear lessons from Blast’s rise and fall. That network drew $2 billion in TVL by routing ETH into stETH and streaming yield back to depositors, only to see liquidity vanish after its June 2024 airdrop. Without any coherent follow-up to its initial marketing blast, Blast’s user base cratered — along with its narrative.
Linea, by contrast, looks to keep ETH native while promising fast withdrawals alongside ETH staking… eventually. While the July press release previews staking yield by October 2025, the canonical bridge’s yield feature was already discussed in a January roadmap post and flagged for rollout first on Status L2, not Linea Mainnet.
While often referred to as a single network, Linea is also a modular rollup stack — much like the Optimism OP Stack or Polygon-developed AggLayer CDK — that can be used to deploy independent zkEVM rollups. Status L2 is one such chain: a separate layer-2 built on the Linea codebase, operated by the Status Network, and focused on gasless transactions and native ETH yield. Though both chains share infrastructure and ETH-centric design goals, they operate independently, with distinct tokens, deployment schedules and governance structures.
Still, there is fresh clarity today: Linea head Declan Fox told us ETH deposited via the canonical bridge “will be staked natively through institutional-grade validators, with a noncustodial vault set-up,” with further technical details to come.
Linea also shares similar concepts with Katana, the rollup incubated by Polygon Labs and GSR that launched last month. Both networks use ETH as their sole gas token and emphasize “productive capital,” but Katana routes fees to curated DeFi apps via VaultBridge. Linea goes further: Every transaction burns ETH on mainnet and LINEA on L2. That creates a visible value loop to Ethereum — at least in theory.
But theory runs into friction while the sequencer is still permissioned. According to the same January roadmap, Linea planned to move from Clique to QBFT consensus in Q2 and begin transitioning to a permissioned validator set in the second half of 2025. Full permissionless DPoS isn’t slated until “2027+.” Fox referred us to the roadmap timeline, which means all ETH burn mechanics still rely on operator goodwill for now.
Token utility remains another open thread. LINEA can now be used to pay gas, thanks to an ERC-20 payment feature that launched earlier this year, but it holds no formal governance power and no claim on revenue. Katana sidestepped that issue by stripping its token of any voting rights. Linea will eventually need to clarify whether burn and fee utility are enough to sustain long-term demand for its token.
Then there’s the regulatory question. A token that captures protocol fees and is permanently bought-and-burned resembles a corporate buyback loop — something US regulators have flagged in other contexts. Neither the roadmap nor the new announcement addressed the legal implications of the model.
For now, Linea has bought itself a strong narrative: a chain where ETH gets yield, ETH gets burned, and builders get the bulk of the token supply. If the staking bridge launches on time and the ecosystem fund is deployed with transparency, it could be a compelling alternative to L2s that extract more than they give back. But the hard parts — decentralization, custody design, token value — are still in the delivery phase.
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