Base, Coinbase’s tokenless blockchain, has set a new record for reported transactions. Despite lagging behind Solana, Base powers over 19% of token launches, contributing to overall activity.
Base is scaling and setting a new record in total transactions. The latest record is over 7.3 million daily transactions, compared to 1.19 million for Ethereum, but still lags behind Solana, with over 270 million transactions on L1.
Base has been increasing its transactions over the past year while paying minimal rent to Ethereum. | Source: Growthepie
Base’s success is still relevant today as it remains one of the most scalable and liquid L2 systems with wide adoption and marketing. Base is also highly liquid, with over $3.5 million in stablecoins and second only to Arbitrum with $4.4 billion.
Base is also a leader in throughput, measuring the complexity of completed transactions and tasks. One of the drivers of growth is the Aerodrome DEX, as well as other DeFi protocols.
In recent months, Base has seen a stronger influx of bridged ETH moving into DeFi protocols. Up to $38 million worth of ETH was bridged on busy days. As a result, Base is now wearing $2.89 billion locked in value, of which $1.39 billion is at Aerodrome, supporting high-speed pairs. Aerodrome is also the main venue for inflow from Ethereumwhich corresponds to the value of $1.39 billion.
Not all traffic on Base is of high value, because the chain aims for mass adoption. The chain also offers new token launches and meme sharing, as well as a form of task-based leaderboard via the Rewards.fun app.
NFT and social activities only make up about 7% of basic traffic. The chain’s main profile is still DeFi, centered around Aerodrome as a value and liquidity hub. However, the informal meme activity and cheap NFT are part of the efforts to popularize the basic chain. Base has apps like Hype, which adds a tool that makes it easy to exchange memes, possible thanks to Base’s low fee of $0.0009 for most transactions.
Base carries around $3 billion worth of tokens, most of which are versions of Ethereum or Solana memes. However, Base does not provide easy liquidity for new meme tokens. For that reason, most of the best base tokens come from older meme periods. The base carries Degen (DEGEN), the Farcaster reward token, as well as gaming tokens for Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA). One of the newest memes is the native version of Mogcoin (MOG).
Base has not yet called for a native token, despite multiple incentives and point rewards. For the time being, activity on the base is not directly stimulated with the possibility of an air drop.
Base strives for an optimized L1 rental
Base is part of the Optimism superchain and uses optimistic rollups. With its technology it comes closest to decentralization based on Vitalik Buterin’s criteria. However, base is still considered one Phase 0 chain, which does not meet the exit screen requirement.
The scalable chain relies on blobs and still has to pay rent to Ethereum. However, Base can change the blob placement schedule to optimize costs. As a result, Base generates $237.63K in daily fees while only paying out $3.25K in Ethereum. Since the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, most leading L2 companies have been trying to pay minimum rental prices to the main network. Throughout October, Base earned $4.05 million in fees and $3.49 million in terms of total revenue.
Blob fees had several periods of competitive pricing, creating periods of more expensive blob space. L2 had to adjust their posting schedule to get free blobs. For now, Base has managed to stay below the blob payment zone. However, if the chain wants to reach a similar scale to Solana, the rent could increase.
In early November, L2 chains reached blob space saturation on almost all days of the week. The fees were still relatively small, but L2 immediately changed their booking schedule to minimize rent.