On August 9, 2023, the Base Layer 2 (L2) network launched its mainnet for public use. At the time, it was seen as one of many projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, but in just two years, it has grown into one of the sector’s leaders. Today, Base ranks second among Ethereum rollups, behind only Arbitrum One in key metrics.
How Base Achieved Success
The project was developed by Coinbase to make Ethereum interactions cheaper and faster without sacrificing security. Base is built on Optimistic Rollup technology and integrates with the OP Stack ecosystem, allowing it to adopt proven solutions from Optimism while adding its own optimizations.
Its main advantages — low fees and scalability — have made it attractive to both users and developers. Over the past two years, the Base ecosystem has grown to include dozens of DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, games, and social applications.
Impressive Growth Metrics
On-chain data from the past year shows explosive growth across all major indicators:
- TVL (Total Value Locked) — up 8,781% in 12 months, reaching $4.46 billion, one of the fastest growth rates among L2 solutions.
- Active users — up 1,280%, to 1.25 million unique addresses.
- The single-day record was set on June 20, 2025, at 3.59 million active users, largely due to major DeFi and NFT campaign launches.
- Transactions — up over 2,000%. The network processed an average of 7.5 million daily transactions over the past year, far exceeding most L2 competitors.
- Network fees — dropped by nearly half, from around $0.01 to $0.005 per transaction. On certain days, costs fell below $0.001, making Base particularly attractive for micropayments and high-frequency use cases, such as gaming and social apps.
Comparison with Competitors
While Arbitrum One still leads in TVL and developer activity, Base has surpassed several earlier entrants, including Optimism, zkSync Era, and Starknet. Reasons for this include:
- Coinbase integration — instant access to a massive user base.
- User experience focus — ease of use, friendly wallets, and fast transaction processing.
- Low fees — while maintaining high speed.
- Active grant programs — supporting startups in the ecosystem.
An Anniversary Marked by a Technical Outage
Just days before its second anniversary, on August 5, 2025, the network experienced a technical issue: block production halted for 33 minutes. The incident caused temporary disruptions in applications but did not result in data or fund losses.
Developers attributed the outage to a bug in one of the infrastructure components and promised to implement fixes, including enhanced monitoring and automated recovery systems.
Outlook for the Future
With its current growth pace and strong backing from Coinbase, analysts predict Base will continue strengthening its position and may soon pose real competition to Arbitrum One. Expected developments include:
- Expanded integration with other L2 and L3 solutions.
- More DeFi and GameFi projects leveraging Base’s ultra-low fees.
- Enhanced infrastructure for security and resilience.
Conclusion
In just two years, Base has gone from a newcomer in the Ethereum ecosystem to one of the key players in the L2 market. The sharp rise in TVL, user base, and transactions shows the network has found its niche, while technical hiccups like the recent outage are seen as growing pains of rapid development. If this momentum continues, Base could become a major gateway for mainstream blockchain adoption.
