Base, Coinbase’s tokenless blockchain, concluded its first year as a competitive L2 network. Base had a positive impact on multiple apps and the entire Web3 space.
Base turned one year old and achieved on-chain results that put it far ahead of other L1 and L2 networks. The Base Network, promoted by Coinbase, did not require a token and relied on intuitive Web3 wallets to acquire users.
Although 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, while also 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 the use of Base.
Base’s current user growth did not push costs above $0.02 while expanding its use of DeFi and Web3.
Base is the most important chain in the Optimism ecosystem. The base chain also contains OP tokens of the Optimism Mainnet, showing its scaling capabilities.
Base’s most used features included the USDC stablecoin and providing easier and cheaper access to the Uniswap DEX. At the end of July, Base surpassed the carrying milestone $20 billion worth USDC, with accelerated growth in the past three months.
As a result, Base expanded the total value to $1.44 billionwith a big boost from the 2024 bull market. Basic activity grew even more in the second quarter as meme token trading boosted decentralized exchanges. Base is a net recipient of Ethereum (ETH) inflows, along with Optimism. Base received $1.11 billion directly inflowwith $1.01 billion for optimism. Native bridged tokens make up 94% of the traffic, while about 6% of the inflow comes from stablecoins, mainly USDC.
The base had more than 730,000 daily active users in August, surpassing even the Bitcoin (BTC) network. The influx of users has helped Base achieve this goal $3.39 million in monthly income. Hundreds or thousands of new contracts are also deployed every day, mostly driven by meme token activity. Other L2 chains remain close competitors to Base, but the newer chain is slowly expanding its offerings market share.
happy 1⃣ birthday, @base 🎂
here are the achievements in your first 365 days:
◆ 3.6 million daily transactions
◆ $0.02 transaction fee
◆ 600,000 daily users (unique addresses)
◆ 40,000 USDC daily userscheck it out: https://t.co/KoGJXPEEQa
Here’s to many more years, stay grounded 🔵 pic.twitter.com/afZLhyQ8qH
— Crystal Tai ☕ (@crystaltaixyz) August 9, 2024
Basis is facing a problem with bots and fake tokens
Over the past quarter, Base has managed to grow its user base and overcome bots with real users. Uniswap V2 became the most active DEX based, with up to 80% of Uniswap users migrating from Ethereum to the new chain.
The creation of new meme tokens also meant that some assets were scams. Buyers complained about tokens that could only be bought but not sold.
The other source of growth for Base came from the original DEX, Aerodrome. The DEX is the seventh largest of the newly growing markets, with more than $562,000 in revenue value locked. Aerodrome is expanding on Base, accounting for 80% of all transaction volumes during most active days.
As of August 5, Aerodrome on Base also had the most actively traded decentralized pair. The DEX pair contributed $221.5 million in volumes for WETH against USDC. While Base doesn’t have a native token yet, Aerodrome acts as the tokenized project that reflects the chain’s growth. In the past year, all early Aerodrome investors received $110 million redistributed compensation. Aerodrome veAERO tokens are distributed fairly and have no insider VC holdings. AERO tokens traded at $0.68 after the recent correction, which is still higher than their initial trading price of $0.09 over the past 12 months.
Aerodrome’s usage only recently surpassed Uniswap, boosted by USDC trading pairs. Recently, Aerodrome broke through over $3 billion in trading volume and has grown into a fee-generating protocol with a fee-sharing program for veAERO holders and voters.
The other big name on Base was Miggles (MIGGLES), a meme token created in the image of the Coinbase NFT, Mr. Miggles. MIGGLES has turned into a fully verified, tradable token, with a preponderance of buyers over sellers from August 12.
MIGGLES is a relatively well distributed token, with only a handful of small tokens wallet clusters. The meme token has been trading since July 19 and is currently recovering towards $0.43.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva