Stablecoin activity has shifted over the past year, with Base becoming the busiest L2 chain. Driven by trading and DeFi, Base has left other L2s behind.
Base is another fast-growing hub for stablecoin transfers. The chain wears $USDCone of the most active stablecoins of the past year.
As a cryptopolite reported Previously, Solana also saw an outbreak of stablecoin activity, indicating that users value fast networks with low fees, as well as user-facing apps. The shift to stablecoin use signals that chains are returning to financial infrastructure after abandoning previous narratives.
The offer of $USDC and other stablecoins hit a record high on Base in January.
Stablecoins on Base reached a new record high in January, mainly due to new coins $USDC inflow. | Source: Dune Analytics
Circle also became a top 3 app in the chain. The foundation remains tokenless, so stablecoins are the key to building liquidity pairs. The chain also saw Uniswap emerge as the most used feature, further driving demand for stablecoins.
The chain responded to expectations that stablecoins would become the main use case for crypto. Although revenue is still officially not allowed, Base offers several options for generating revenue.
Basic carries $USDC in the first place
More than 90% of the stablecoin supply on Base consists of $USDC. Base has a total of $4.81 billion in stablecoins, ahead of Arbitrum with $3.75 billion and Hyperliquid with $4.6 billion. Polygon is still left with $3.4 billion worth of stablecoins on offer despite its attempt to become a payments network.
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The recent concentration of stablecoins shows that L2 has lost its appeal due to liquidity fragmentation. Furthermore, bridging is usually seen as cumbersome due to the costs or risk of losses. The bridging and use of stablecoins on other L2 chains has largely coincided with periods of airdrop farming and has slowed over the past year.
Base is positioning the network as a platform for payment apps, similar to Solana, Polygon and others. With the rise of stablecoin payments globally, older chains have abandoned other, less active use cases such as $NFT or gaming.
Base takes finance as its main use case
While Base was founded as a low-cost chain for fun on-chain activities including NFTs, memes, and DEX trading, the chain switched to decentralized finance in 2026.
Just over 30% of the base activity is dedicated to financial activities, based on L2 data.
More than 30% of the basic activity is devoted to financial activities. | Source: GrowThePie
Base also received a boost from expanded lending, mainly through the Morpho and Aave protocols. The wave of decentralized lending followed the previous period, in which Base was primarily used for perpetual futures trading via Aerodrome.
Base is the main hub for curated credit vaults, with Gauntlet and Steakhouse also among the most active apps. The demand for safes and transactions also increased $USDC as the main source of liquidity.
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