Base, the tokenless blockchain by Coinbase, has hit a new milestone with a record number of reported transactions. While still trailing behind Solana, Base continues to account for over 19% of token launches, contributing to the platform’s overall activity.
Base is making significant strides in scalability, achieving another record in total transactions. The latest data shows that Base is processing over 7.3 million daily transactions, surpassing Ethereum’s 1.19 million transactions but still falling short of Solana’s impressive 270 million transactions on L1.
Base has seen a surge in transactions over the past year, while maintaining minimal dependency on Ethereum. | Source: Growthepie
The success of Base remains significant, as it continues to be one of the most scalable and liquid L2 solutions with widespread adoption and strong marketing efforts. Base also boasts high liquidity, holding over $3.5 million in stablecoins, second only to Arbitrum’s $4.4 billion.
Base is leading in throughput metrics, indicating the complexity of transactions and tasks completed on the platform. The growth is being driven by the Aerodrome DEX and other DeFi protocols.
In recent months, Base has witnessed increased inflows of bridged ETH into DeFi protocols, with up to $38 million in ETH bridged on peak days. As a result, Base now has a total value locked of $2.89 billion, with $1.39 billion locked on Aerodrome, supporting high-velocity pairs. Aerodrome is also a key gateway for inflows from Ethereum, matching the $1.39 billion in locked value.
While DeFi activities dominate Base’s network, the platform also accommodates new token launches, meme sharing, and a task-based leaderboard through the Rewards.fun app, catering to a wider audience for mass adoption.
NFTs and social interactions make up a small portion of Base’s traffic, with the platform’s core focus remaining on DeFi, particularly centered around Aerodrome as a hub for value and liquidity. However, the inclusion of informal meme activities and low-cost NFTs reflects Base’s efforts to engage a diverse user base. Base hosts applications like Hype, facilitating easy meme swaps due to its low transaction fees of $0.0009.
Base currently supports around $3 billion in tokens, predominantly Ethereum and Solana-based memes. While new meme tokens may not find immediate liquidity on Base, the platform hosts popular tokens from previous meme cycles, including Degen (DEGEN), Farcaster reward token, and gaming tokens for Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA). One of the latest additions is the native version of Mogcoin (MOG).
Despite various incentives and rewards, Base has not yet introduced a native token, with user activity not directly incentivized by the prospect of an airdrop.
Base’s Focus on Optimized L1 Rent
Base operates within the Optimism superchain using optimistic rollups, aligning closely with Vitalik Buterin’s decentralization criteria. However, Base is categorized as a Stage 0 chain, falling short of meeting the exit screen requirement.
The platform leverages blobs for scalability and still pays rent to Ethereum. By adjusting its blob posting schedule, Base can optimize fees, generating $237.63K in daily fees while only paying out $3.25K to Ethereum. Since the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, leading L2 solutions aim to minimize rents paid to the main network. In October alone, Base collected $4.05 million in fees and $3.49 million in total revenues.
Periods of competitive blob pricing have prompted L2 chains to adjust their posting schedules to secure free blobs. Base has managed to maintain cost-effective blob space allocation so far, but scaling to Solana’s level may necessitate an increase in rent.
In early November, L2 chains experienced saturation in blob space allocation on most days of the week, prompting swift adjustments to minimize rental costs.
