ArbOS 61, named "Elara," activated on both Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova on August 20, 2026, following a governance vote. The upgrade touches gas pricing, smart contract size limits, compliance tooling, and fee governance simultaneously. Node operators running the network must upgrade to Nitro v3.11.3 to stay compatible.

What Changed in Elara

The upgrade's most immediate impact for developers is a fourfold increase in smart contract size limits on Stylus, Arbitrum's framework for writing contracts in languages other than Solidity. The previous ceiling of 24 KB now sits at 96 KB, which matters for teams building in Rust, C, or C++. Larger contracts mean fewer fragmented deployments and lower overhead for complex applications. Solidity limits are not affected.

Elara also introduces a six-dimension gas pricing model covering compute, storage reads, storage writes, storage growth, history growth, and calldata. According to Offchain Labs documentation, the design prices each network resource independently rather than collapsing everything into a single gas figure. Separately, governance has delegated fee adjustment authority to a new BaseFeeManager contract, allowing Offchain Labs to modify Arbitrum One's minimum L2 base fee within a governance-approved band of 0.01 to 0.10 gwei. That delegation expires in two years.

The compliance filtering feature is available only on dedicated Orbit chains (Arbitrum's framework for launching custom Layer 2 networks), not on Arbitrum One or Nova. Orbit chain operators can now integrate with blockchain analytics providers to screen transactions at the protocol level. TRM Labs support ships first, with Chainalysis and Elliptic planned. The design reflects a deliberate separation: public networks operate without filters, while enterprise deployments get optional controls. As Bitcoinist summarized the rationale, enterprise adoption often requires controls that open public networks do not prioritize.

Elara also introduces an alternative data availability API for dedicated chain launches, a component expected to reduce infrastructure costs for operators building on the Orbit stack.

Singapore Buildathon and Robinhood Chain's Regional Bet

Alongside the Elara launch, the Arbitrum Foundation confirmed Robinhood Chain as a co-sponsor of Open House Singapore, the third stop in a 2026 global builder series that previously distributed $340K in New York and $300K in London. Robinhood Chain's total commitment across all four cities, including Dubai, is $1 million.

The Singapore buildathon opens September 14 for a three-week online phase, followed by an in-person Founder House. Total prizes for the Singapore round reach $415K, broken across a $70K buildathon, $15K promising products track, $30K in foundation grants, and additional Founder House awards that account for the remaining balance. Prize payouts use a 50/50 split between upfront payment and milestone-based disbursements. At least one of the top three buildathon slots is reserved for a team building on Robinhood Chain.

The city-state is not a random choice. Singapore ranks fourth globally on crypto-friendliness, hosts at least 81 licensed crypto exchanges, and serves as the world's second-largest stablecoin hub after the United States, according to Presto Labs. It also serves as Robinhood's Asia-Pacific headquarters. Robinhood received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a brokerage license in April 2026. Patrick Chan, Robinhood's Head of Asia, described Singapore as the ideal hub for the company's mission, citing its regulatory environment, digital adoption rates, and retail investor base.

The focus areas for Singapore, including AI agents, financial primitives, and tokenized financial products, align closely with what Robinhood Chain already offers. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 built on Arbitrum's Orbit stack, with its mainnet launching in July 2026. The chain supports tokenized stock trading available in more than 120 countries, a decentralized lending product yielding roughly 7% annually on its USDG stablecoin, and AI agent-based autonomous trading tools.

For developers in South Asia and Southeast Asia, the combination of Elara's Stylus expansion and Robinhood Chain's real-world asset infrastructure is relevant in concrete terms. Rust is a growing language in India's tech ecosystem, and the increased contract size limit removes fragmentation barriers. The optional compliance filters in Elara could also lower the technical barrier for regional financial institutions in markets where regulators have shown interest in permissioned blockchain infrastructure, including India's SEBI and RBI, as well as fintech authorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The opportunity extends further. Robinhood Chain's tokenized asset and stablecoin features address persistent access gaps in African markets for remittances and equity exposure, and ZK-accelerated withdrawals carry practical relevance for African DeFi users who face friction moving funds back to settlement layers. Dubai, the fourth Open House city, functions as a natural gateway for East African crypto activity, giving the program's regional footprint a scope that extends well beyond Southeast Asia.

Token Context and What Comes Next

ARB, Arbitrum's governance token, was trading at roughly $0.08 to $0.10 as of August 23, 2026, well below its January 2024 all-time high of $2.40. Arbitrum's total value locked stood at approximately $1.27 billion as of late June 2026, the most recent tracked figure available, down about 15% over the prior 30 days. More than 100 Orbit chains are now live or in development.

Looking further out, Offchain Labs is developing ZK proof integration for Arbitrum One in collaboration with Succinct Labs. The approach pairs ZK proofs with existing fraud proofs rather than replacing the current architecture outright. The practical benefit most often cited is faster withdrawals: moving funds from Arbitrum back to Ethereum mainnet currently takes days under the optimistic rollup system, and ZK integration targets a reduction to hours. ZK integration would also enable private Arbitrum chains, a capability that connects directly to the compliance-filter architecture introduced in Elara. A DAO proposal for Arbitrum One integration is expected but has not been formally submitted. T3tris Finance, an earlier Open House mentorship graduate, reached $12M in total value locked after launching on Arbitrum in July 2026, according to the Arbitrum Foundation.

Open House Singapore buildathon applications are open through the Arbitrum Foundation website. The online phase runs September 14 through early October 2026.