Base by Coinbase Celebrates Its First Year as a Competitive L2 Network

Base, the tokenless blockchain by Coinbase, wrapped up its first year as a competitive L2 network. Base had a positive impact on multiple apps and the entire Web3 space.

Base, Coinbase's tokenless blockchain, marked its first year as a competitive L2 network with a positive impact on multiple apps and the entire Web3 space.

Base achieved on-chain results that placed it far ahead of other L1 and L2 networks. Promoted by Coinbase, the Base network did not require a token and depended on intuitive Web3 wallets to gain users.

While the chain increased the overall fees generated, it was also relatively cheap for end users. In its first year, Base reported more than 27M registered wallets, also accelerating the addition of new users. The ‘on-chain summer’ campaign coincided with the period of accelerated user growth. The Base team was also focused on creating tasks and interactions, as well as accessible NFTs, to encourage Base usage.

The current user growth of Base did not move fees beyond $0.02, while widening the usage of DeFi and Web3.

Base is the most significant chain in the Optimism ecosystem. The Base chain also carries OP tokens from the Optimism Mainnet, showcasing its scaling abilities.

The most widely used features of Base included the USDC stablecoin, as well as granting easier and cheaper access to the Uniswap DEX. At the end of July, Base surpassed the milestone of carrying $20B worth of USDC, with accelerating growth in the past three months.

As a result, Base expanded its total value locked to $1.44B, with a big boost from the 2024 bull market. Base activity grew even more in Q2, as meme token trading boosted decentralized exchanges. Base is a net recipient of inflows from Ethereum (ETH), together with Optimism. Base directly received $1.11B of inflows, with $1.01B for Optimism. Native bridged tokens make up 94% of the traffic, while around 6% of inflows come from stablecoins, especially USDC.

Base marked more than 730K daily active users in August, surpassing even the Bitcoin (BTC) network. The user inflow helped Base achieve $3.39M in monthly revenues. Each day, hundreds or thousands new contracts are also deployed, mostly driven by meme token activity. Other L2 chains remain close competitors of Base, but the newer chain is slowly expanding its market share.