Base, the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 network, mined its genesis block on June 15, 2023, with a reference to an age-old internet meme embedded within: “all your base are belong to you.”
One year after that genesis block, and even less time since Base's public launch in August 2023, Base has become a significant challenger in the Ethereum rollup space, garnering a significant userbase through SocialFi apps on its platform such as Friend.tech , popular decentralized exchange Aerodrome, and lending protocol Moonwell. Base even has its own networks built on top, such as meme-coin focused Degen Chain, which primarily powers the token adopted by Web3 social network Farcaster as its de facto community currency.
Here's a look inside Base's first year, by the numbers.
SocialFi helped spur adoption
Asset manager Franklin Templeton recently said Base's adoption of SocialFi represented a “home run” for Coinbase, accounting for nearly half of all SocialFi transactions across the crypto sphere, boosted by the popularity of SocialFi app Friend.tech and the ease of onboarding for Coinbase customers.
Friend.tech's impact on Base can easily be seen in graphs of early activity on Base, with the mid-September 2023 spike in Friend.tech transactions coinciding with a similar peak in Base's seven-day moving average transaction count.
The launch of Ethereum's Dencun upgrade in April, which reduced transaction costs across the network and its Layer 2 rollups, led to Base's second sustained surge in activity. The median gas fees on Base dropped from around $0.5 on March 13, just before Dencun was activated, to about $0.003 following the upgrade, making Base one of the cheapest Layer 2 networks for users.
Aerodrome and Moonwell draw deposits
The total value locked on Base recently surpassed Optimism to become the largest of all the networks in the OP-Stack based “Superchain,” though the protocol still ranks behind Arbitrum and Blast for TVL, according to DefiLlama data. The Aerodrome decentralized exchange ranks as Base's most valuable protocol by TVL, while the Base implementation of Uniswap ranks as #2 and decentralized lending protocol Moonwell takes the bronze.
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That financial activity has led to significant fees for Coinbase over the past year, with the company drawing in over two million dollars in fees on its most profitable day this past March, according to The Block's data. Though it was also the Optimism Collective's most profitable day for Layer 2 fees, the collective made only about $358,000 on that date, about 18% of Base's total.
Free USDC transfers spur stablecoin surge
After Coinbase announced in December that transfers through Coinbase Wallet would be free on Base, the volume of the Circle-issued stablecoin began to rise on the network. Mere months later, the supply of those stablecoins on Base grew enough for it to pass Solana as the network with the second-largest volume of USDC, after Ethereum itself, according to The Block's data dashboard.
Coinbase has also announced plans to store more corporate and customer USDC balances on Base, further juicing the network's stablecoin supply, The Block previously reported.
Will Arbitrum hold the lead?
In recent weeks, a surge of activity on fellow optimistic rollup-based Layer 2 network Arbitrum has seen the network retake the top slot from Base, which it briefly held throughout most of April, according to The Block's data.
Arbitrum's governance DAO recently passed a major proposal allocating $215 million to a gaming ecosystem fund in order to boost partnerships with gaming companies on the network. As Coinbase plans its second annual “Onchain Summer” event to raise awareness around Base, the battle between Arbitrum and Base for users will certainly be one to watch.
