Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 blockchain platform, Base, has experienced a significant increase in total value locked (TVL) of over 13.2% in the past week, surpassing $4 billion for the first time. According to data from L2BEAT, Base’s TVL currently stands at $4.15 billion, with $1.45 billion of canonically bridged value and $2.7 billion in natively minted assets. Base is now the third largest Ethereum layer 2 platform by TVL, surpassing its rival Blast by $1.4 billion, but still trailing Optimism by $3.5 billion and Arbitrum by $14.6 billion.
Among the top five layer 2 platforms by TVL, Base is the only one that has experienced a gain in the past week. Other platforms like Starknet, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Blast have all seen a decline in TVL, with Starknet experiencing the biggest loss at 10.2%. Base’s increase in TVL can be attributed to its surge in activity, with its 30-day transaction count surpassing both Arbitrum and Ethereum.
Base’s average daily transactions per second (TPS) have also seen a significant increase, jumping by 29.7% over the week. Currently, Base’s TPS is higher than the combined TPS of Arbitrum and Ethereum. This rise in activity can be attributed to the platform’s popularity in the memecoin market, where its meme token market capitalization has reached over $1.6 billion.
However, Base’s popularity has also attracted scammers, resulting in an 18-fold increase in successful phishing scams from January to March, with $3.35 million stolen last month. Despite this, Base remains a promising layer 2 platform, benefiting from Ethereum’s efforts to improve its layer-2 transaction processing capabilities.
Analysts from VanEck estimate that Ethereum’s scaling ecosystem, including layer 2 platforms like Base, could reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion by 2030. As the industry continues to evolve, the measurement of blockchain transactions per second (TPS) may become less relevant, raising questions about its significance in the future.