Author: Nancy, PANews
L2 has shifted from early technical narratives to the game of ecology and capital. Compared to most L2 projects gradually entering the tail end of narrative dividends, Base has recently seen a dual increase in capital inflow and attention. Behind Base's growth are the resource advantages of American crypto giant Coinbase, continuous technological breakthroughs, and the hot push from ecosystems like MEME and RWA.
Leading the Market with $2.8 Billion, Ethereum is Being "Drained" by Base
With strong capital inflows, Base is leading the L2 market, especially as the Ethereum ecosystem is migrating en masse to this network.
According to data from Artemis, the Base network has attracted a significant amount of capital this year, with a net inflow of approximately $2.8 billion, ranking first, far surpassing other blockchains and demonstrating the market's favor towards its ecosystem. Specifically, Ethereum is the largest source of capital inflow for Base, contributing 70.9% of the inflow, approximately $3.73 billion. This reflects a trend of Ethereum users and capital migrating to the Base network. Other L2 networks like Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, and Blast have also contributed to Base's capital inflow.
From the perspective of capital favorability, Base has already gained a significant advantage in the L2 competition. This is particularly evident when contrasting Base with Arbitrum, which ranks first in TVL among L2s, as the latter has seen a net outflow of $3.1 billion this year, while other L2s like zkSync Era, OP Mainnet, and Linea have also experienced varying degrees of capital outflow.
However, Base's on-chain activity has also shown signs of slowing down this year, which is significantly related to the overall cooling of the crypto market. Data from Artemis shows that Base's capital inflow has gradually decreased from a peak of $1.1 billion in January to $830 million in February, and further down to $310 million by mid-March. Meanwhile, the number of on-chain transactions has plummeted from 330 million in January to 91.6 million in March, a drop of over 70%. Despite the decline in transaction numbers, the number of active addresses on Base has rebounded this month, reaching 1.2 million, equivalent to the total for January. As a result, Base's revenue has also declined, dropping from a peak of $15.5 million in January to $2.5 million in March.
Notably, the current surge in the number of smart contract deployments indicates that Base is attracting a large number of projects and developers to build applications on-chain. According to Token Terminal data, the number of smart contracts deployed on the Base chain has reached an all-time high. Last week, a total of 11.4 million smart contracts were deployed on this L2 network.
Riding the Wave of Coinbase, Technological Breakthroughs and Ecological Explosions Strengthen Competitiveness
Currently, Base is rapidly rising, backed by Coinbase, the American crypto giant, along with the triple boost of technological innovation and ecological enthusiasm.
Riding the wave of U.S. crypto policy, Base's creator Coinbase is encountering more development opportunities. In recent months, Coinbase has received multiple favorable news, including enjoying "VIP" treatment at a White House summit, the SEC dropping lawsuits, restarting the tokenization of COIN stock, and even rumors that Coinbase has become a target for acquisitions by traditional exchanges. Base may benefit from the enhancement of Coinbase's brand and resources. (Related reading: Coinbase Rides the "Tailwind" of U.S. Regulation: White House Summit, Tokenized Stocks, Expansion, and Acquisition Rumors)
At the same time, Base's recent frequent technological advancements are also laying a solid foundation for its move towards large-scale applications. In February of this year, Base announced the launch of several new technologies focused on improving on-chain transaction speed, scalability, and user experience, creating important leverage to attract developers and users. Among them, the Flashblocks technology has gone live on the Base Sepolia test network, reducing block confirmation time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds, making it the fastest EVM chain; Base Appchains (L3 chains) can provide dedicated block space for high-traffic applications, enhancing scalability. Additionally, Base has introduced Smart Wallet Sub Accounts to optimize user experience, reduce transaction signature counts, and provide a more secure account management method. Base plans to launch Flashblocks and Sub Accounts on the mainnet in Q2. The following month, Base announced the acquisition of the Iron Fish team to accelerate the development of privacy protection technology on Base.
Top MEME on Base Source: GMGN
Compared to the steady progress on the technological front, the ecological enthusiasm is the core driving force behind the recent surge in Base's inflow. As the MEME market on Solana has weakened, the recent popularity of $Cocoro and $DRB has boosted activity on the Base chain. Cocoro is a new rescue dog adopted by the owner of the DOGE prototype Shiba Inu KABOSU, and has partnered with Own The Doge to launch a token of the same name on Base. Leveraging the authentic IP and community sentiment, Cocoro quickly gained popularity, with GMGN data showing that the market cap of this MEME coin once exceeded $100 million, with a peak trading volume of $130 million on its first day; DRB (DebtReliefBot) is an AI MEME coin launched by xAI's Grok proposal and issued by AI agent Bankr, with GMGN data showing its market cap peaked at nearly $42 million, with 27,000 holding addresses. The rapid rise of these MEME coins has amplified the attractiveness of the Base network. It is worth mentioning that Coinbase's recent launch of MEME coins like DOGINME and TOSHI on Base has also increased the network's appeal.
At the same time, the tokenization of U.S. stocks is also a hot narrative at the moment. Base developer Jesse Pollak recently revealed that they are considering providing a tokenized version of Coinbase (COIN) stock for U.S. users on Base. Although this plan is still in the exploratory stage, the reality asset tokenization issuer Backed has already launched a tokenized version, wbCOIN, which tracks the stock price of Coinbase Global and is fully backed by its stock. This exploration not only broadens the application scenarios of Base but also expands the investor base.
To further consolidate ecological development, Coinbase Ventures, on March 13, partnered with the on-chain private investment platform Echo to launch the Base Ecosystem Group, which will provide three areas of support for the Base ecosystem: offering broader funding and expertise for developers; providing Base community members with opportunities to participate in early-stage venture investments; and accelerating the flow of funds through on-chain channels to promote the construction of an open financial system. Prior to this, the Base ecosystem fund had already invested in over 40 Base projects.
Overall, for Base to maintain long-term competitiveness in the L2 liquidity game, it needs to continuously work on multiple dimensions such as the sustainability of the ecosystem, continuous technological iteration, market adaptability, and enhancing user stickiness.
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