Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 protocol, Base, has experienced remarkable growth in its Total Value Locked (TVL), surging to $558 million, according to data from the Ethereum layer-2 analytics platform L2Beat. This recent surge represents a more than 25% increase in TVL over the past seven days and marks the second time Base has surpassed Matter Labs’ zero-knowledge (zk) rollup technology-powered scaling solution, zkSync Era.
Base’s impressive growth since its launch two months ago can be attributed to various milestones achieved during this period. The recent surge in TVL is primarily a result of the re-minting of native USD Coin (USDC) on the Base network, which has brought the network’s total USDC stash to 159 million.
In the previous month, Circle, the issuer of USDC, announced plans to launch the stablecoin on Base and Optimism, eliminating the need for bridged Ethereum tokens and enhancing USDC’s utility. At that time, Base was using USD Base Coin (USDbC), a bridged version of USDC, as a stablecoin solution for developers on the network. The bridged contract allowed users to move USDC from Ethereum to Base. Following Circle’s announcement, the USDbC on the Base network was burned in preparation for the native USDC launch, reducing it from 160 million to approximately 30 million within a day. This had a substantial impact on Base’s TVL, causing it to drop by more than 18% to $437 million within seven days.
In contrast, zkSync Era’s TVL rose by 15%, surpassing Base and relegating it to the fourth position on the list of Optimistic rollups. Among the top five projects, Base was the only one experiencing a decline.
With the re-minting of native USDC on the Base network, its TVL has once again surged past zkSync Era, which currently stands at $435 million.
Despite the ongoing bearish market conditions, Base has continued to perform exceptionally well since August. It has even surpassed Ethereum’s Transactions Per Second (TPS) rate of 10.18. In a specific week, Base achieved a 49% increase in TPS, reaching 12.93, while zkSync Era closely followed with a TPS of 12.62. During the same period, Base also recorded 1.8 million daily transactions.
