With the launch of the Ethereum Layer 2 Network Base in 2023, the major American Crypto Exchange Coinbase has ventured deeply into the economy of chains.
Originally, users were called “A bridge” in the crypto economy, but Base was designed to house Coinbase’s existing on-chain products and provide an open ecosystem for millions of new decentralized apps.
Since its launch, the base has evolved into one of the main ones Ethereum Layer-2 networks represent a substantial chunk of chain culture and activity.
Learn everything else you need to know about the base below.
What is a base?
The base is the Ethereum Layer 2 network created by the American Crypto Exchange Coinbase Building on open source standards and OP stacks in 2023, Base utilizes technology to batch transactions to combine and process transactions to help users save gasoline fees.
As a result, transactions on a base offer significantly cheaper and faster transactions for users compared to those of Ethereum mainnet.
Why did Coinbase launch the base?
Coinbase launched the base to solve the key issue of bringing new users and developers into encryption, with the hope of “taking billions of users into the crypto economy.”
With that in mind, the company had to find a way to provide developers and users with safe, inexpensive and fast applications and products. To that end, Base’s Layer-2 blockchain was designed to be open source, decentralized and interoperable. It leverages the transparency of open source code, acts as a “bridge instead of an island” to other major crypto ecosystems, maintaining its commitment to reducing unnecessary intermediaries.
Does the base have tokens?
Unlike many other Layer 2 networks, the base does not have a native token and instead uses Ethereum as a gas token to facilitate transactions on the network.
Many crypto users speculate that the chain will eventually get its own token, but the exchange has recently declared that there is no plan to launch the base token.
“We’re not going to make tokens for the base,” said the company’s CEO Brian Armstrong. Decryption In 2023, the company was stuck in line for two years – the company’s chief justice officer slipped that it “is not something we completely ruled out.”
In September 2025, Base was pivoted from a previous message, saying in a tweet that he was “starting to explore network tokens.” However, Coinbase has repeatedly stated that there is “no definitive plan” for launching tokens for the base network.
Base is beginning to explore network tokens
We are in the early stages of exploration and have no details to share with us, centering on timing, design, or governance. We are committed to bringing our community together with us and building it openly. pic.twitter.com/kukzrfjzxt
– Base (@base) September 15th, 2025
Currently, native token rewards are not offered to buildings on the chain, but the network offers builder grants and funding opportunities for efforts to bring users and applications to the Layer-2 network.
What can you do at the base?
The base has numerous apps and protocols that support on-chain activities across games, social, and social. defiproviding users with a wide range of potential activities.
defi
According to Defilama data, the base house, home to 617 Defi protocols, is more than $5.1 billion in total value lock (TVL), or the amount held. Smart Contract On the chain.
The list is led by decentralized lending platform Morpho, with TVL on the chain at $1.89 billion.
I like other traditional defi players Underpen Aave also has a big presence in Coinbase’s L2, with small protocols like Moonwell and Pendle holding over $100 million in TVL.
game
The base has a robust gaming ecosystem highlighted by the game-centric Layer-3 network B3, which claims to host around 244 games and over 7 million wallets. The ecosystem, built by former members of the base team, attracted prominent web3 game publishers such as Parallel Studios and Nifty Island.
Other games like Frenpet, Aavegotchi and Heroes of Mavia also call the bass home.
Consumer Applications
Beyond games and defi, Layer-2 Network is a host of a variety of consumer applications, ranging from community art to restaurant loyalty programs.
One of the main examples of bonding with the bass is the decentralized social media protocol Farcaster and its popular warpcast clients. It offers a blockchain-based alternative to popular social media sites such as X and Facebook.
The base also features a launchpad of hundreds of other tokens, including Flaunch, the restaurant’s loyalty platform Blackbird, and Collectible Sticker Platform Sofamon.
How does the base compare to other blockchains?
Coinbase’s scaling network is the largest layer 2 network in today’s crypto economy, hosting about $1.6 billion more on TVL than Arbitrum, the next largest layer 2 network, according to Defillama.
However, when comparing bases with all other blockchains, including Layer-1 networks such as Solana and Ethereum, if they rank #7 in their daily active addresses last year, then they don’t just rank between Layer 2 blockchains in terms of financial performance.
Furthermore, according to data from Tokenterminal, the chain ranks fifth among other layer 2 networks of core developers, following the optimistic optimism, arbitrum, Linea and Zksync eras.
What is the future of the base?
Base’s comprehensive goal was to constantly chain billions of consumers, and ultimately expand the crypto ecosystem beyond the current set of users.
As part of its 2025 goal, the network aims to reach 25 million users, 25,000 developers and assets on the $100 billion platform.
To achieve these goals, the chain is focused on adopting AI agents and more, leaning towards app distribution to drive product suite growth, and improving the developer experience by reducing onboarding to under 60 seconds when working with smart wallets.
