Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain network, now hosts approximately 80% of Uniswap’s monthly active traders, crypto researcher Token Terminal said in a post on the X platform.
Base launched in August 2023 and began rapidly gaining market share among decentralized exchange (DEX) traders in early 2024. It has now largely displaced rival blockchains, including Ethereum mainnet and Arbitrum One, another Ethereum layer-2, according to data from Token Terminal.
Ethereum and Arbitrum, followed by Polygon, previously dominated DEX trading activity, the data shows. Arbitrum remains the largest layer-2 blockchain with almost $17.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), well ahead of Base, which comes in second at just shy of $7.2 billion TVL, according to data from L2Beat. The L2Beat data is a broad measurement of TVL that includes native tokens, such as Arbitrum’s ARB, which airdropped to users in 2023.
Coinbase developed Base in partnership with Optimism, another layer-2 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), using a similar technology stack. Base has since differentiated itself — especially among DEX traders — with strong performance. As of July 31, Base is processing nearly 42 transactions per second (TPS) versus Arbitrum One’s less than 20 TPS, according to L2Beat.
Base also benefits from its affiliation with Coinbase, the most popular centralized exchange (CEX) in the United States, with perks including “seamless Coinbase integrations, easy fiat onramps, and access to millions of verified users in the Coinbase ecosystem,” according to Base’s documentation.
Upward of $250 million in Uniswap TVL has migrated to Base, according to July 31 data from DefiLlama. Aerodrome Finance, which is native to Base and identifies as “Base’s central liquidity hub,” has amassed almost $670 million in TVL, according to DeFiLlama.
Base remains in close competition with Arbitrum for the leading role in decentralized finance (DeFi) among Ethereum layer-2s and will face additional competition from next-generation layer-2s, such as zero-knowledge (zk) rollups, in the coming years.
Zk-rollups are designed for faster processing times, nearly instant finality on transactions, and enhanced security. Ethereum L2s Scroll, ZKSync Era, and Starknet are leading players in the zk-rollup race. According to L2Beat, they have already amassed upwards of $3 billion in TVL.
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