Arbitrum (ARB) is 4.5× the size of Optimism (OP) by market capitalisation. Over the past 1 year, ARB is ahead by 31.8 percentage points (ARB -36.3% against OP -68.1%). Their daily returns move closely together (correlation 0.76 across 399 shared trading days). Both have run at a similar volatility, around 101% annualised.
ARBOP
0.76over 399 shared trading days
Measured on daily returns rather than on prices. Two assets that both simply trend upward score near 1.0 on raw prices whether or not they move together, so returns are what answer the question people mean by correlation.
| Metric | ARB | OP |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -84.1% | -89.2% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | 0.73 | 0.24 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | +157.6% | +67.2% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | -51.6% | -60.5% |
Relative strength over 90 days: ARB outperformed OP by 62.1% — measured on the ARB/OP ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.