Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network, has seen its total value locked (TVL) surpass $8 billion, overtaking Optimism’s OP Mainnet. According to L2Beat data, as of June 10, Base’s TVL stands at $8.05 billion, with $2.14 billion of canonically bridged value and $5.92 billion in natively minted assets.
Base, supported by Coinbase, became the largest chain in the Superchain ecosystem last week, now ranking as the second-largest Ethereum scaler in TVL behind Arbitrum One’s $18.27 billion. Base reached the $1 billion TVL mark on Feb. 27, just seven months after its launch in August 2023. Its TVL has been steadily increasing over the past 104 days.
The network leads all Ethereum layer 2s in transactions per second, with 30.36 transactions, surpassing Arbitrum One at 23.52, according to L2BEAT. Base processed 64.86 million transactions in the last 30 days.
Base has been highly profitable, with on-chain profits reaching a record $16.9 million in March, according to data from “niftytable” on Dune Analytics. Although profits fell to $6.98 million in May, Base still outperforms OP Mainnet, which recorded $1.57 million in profits last month.
The network’s popularity with memecoins led to significant profits, but also attracted scammers, resulting in an 18-fold increase in funds stolen from phishing scams from January to March.
Analysts at asset manager VanEck predict that Ethereum layer-2 scaling networks will reach a combined $1 trillion market cap by 2023.
In the world of memecoins, Base’s success raises questions about whether they betray crypto’s ideals or serve its true purpose.