Coinbase‘s Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, Base, has achieved a significant milestone, with its total value locked (TVL) soaring by over 13.2% in the past week to surpass $4 billion for the first time. This surge in TVL comes as Base’s 30-day transaction volume outpaces Ethereum and its primary competitor, Arbitrum, according to recent data from L2Beat updated on April 7.
At present, Base boasts a total TVL of $4.15 billion, with $1.45 billion of canonically bridged value, representing assets locked on Ethereum and mirrored on Base, alongside $2.7 billion in natively minted assets. Notably, Base ranks as the third-largest Ethereum layer 2 platform by TVL, outpacing its fourth-place competitor, Blast, by approximately $1.4 billion. However, it still trails behind Optimism and Arbitrum, with a $3.5 billion and $14.6 billion difference in TVL, respectively.
In a week marked by fluctuations, Base emerged as the only layer 2 protocol among the top five by TVL to experience a gain, underscoring its growing prominence in the crypto landscape. Starknet witnessed the largest TVL loss at 10.2%, while Optimism, Arbitrum, and Blast saw declines of 9.1%, 5.5%, and 2.4%, respectively.
Base’s TVL surge aligns with heightened activity levels, as evidenced by its 30-day transaction count, which surpassed both Arbitrum and Ethereum, totaling 50.34 million transactions. Furthermore, Base’s average daily transactions per second (TPS) surged by 29.7% over the week, averaging 35.19 TPS — surpassing the combined TPS of Arbitrum and Ethereum, which recorded respective scores of 16.61 and 13.91.
Amidst its rise, Base has also been propelled by the recent surge in memecoin activity, with its meme token market capitalization surpassing $1.6 billion, reflecting a 13% increase over the past day, according to CoinGecko.
However, the platform’s popularity has also attracted unwanted attention, with scammers exploiting its growth. Base witnessed an 18-fold increase in successful phishing scams from January to March, resulting in $3.35 million stolen last month alone.
Despite these challenges, Ethereum remains committed to enhancing its layer-2 transaction processing capabilities, as demonstrated by its March 13 Dencun upgrade, aimed at reducing layer-2 transaction fees.
Looking ahead, layer 2 solutions like Base stand to benefit from Ethereum’s continued efforts to address scalability issues. VanEck analysts project that the network’s scaling ecosystem could achieve a market capitalization of $1 trillion by 2030, further bolstering the prospects for platforms like Base in the evolving crypto landscape.
