Linea woos Ethereum users with 'free' layer-2 bridging

Linea now covers layer-2 gas fees for bridges from Ethereum, though the offer excludes USDC transfers, high-gas transactions, and doesn’t waive layer-1 fees.

Blockchain network Linea is now covering layer-2 gas fees for users bridging assets from Ethereum (ETH) mainnet, aiming to make onboarding faster and simpler. In an X post on May 7, Linea noted the new offer applies only to its native bridge and comes with a few limits, though the team says it’s part of a broader push to reduce friction for new users.

Linea is a zero-knowledge layer-2 network built on Ethereum and developed by Consensys, the company behind MetaMask, Infura and other Ethereum tools. The network is designed to help developers scale Ethereum apps with lower costs and faster transactions.

The gas fee waiver applies only to Ethereum-to-Linea transfers using Linea’s own bridge. Additionally, the Linea team listed a few things to keep in mind: it only covers layer-1 to layer-2 transactions, won’t apply to anything that uses more than 250,000 gas, and it doesn’t include USD Coin (USDC) transfers through Circle’s CCTP, adding that users still have to pay for the Ethereum mainnet gas themselves.

That means users still need to pay for the Ethereum mainnet gas — often around $2 to $20 depending on network congestion. And the 250,000 gas cap means the covered layer-2 fee is up to about $20-$45, based on typical rates.

In early April, Linea’s head of product said the team decided to wait for a more bullish crypto market before moving ahead with its token launch. A month earlier, then-marketing lead Christopher Kocurek told the Discord community that Consensys executives and the board were aiming for a token generation event in the second quarter of 2025. Since then, Kocurek has left Linea to join an early-stage startup, and there’s been no further update on the TGE.