Base will transition to a unified, internally maintained stack, anticipated to be its largest architectural shift since launch.
After debuting in 2023 as a rollup constructed on Optimism’s OP Stack, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 is now consolidating its software program into an in-house distribution, which might unlock quicker upgrades and better autonomy over its technical roadmap.
It has been three years since Base launched its testnet. The community has skilled SocialFi explosions and ridden its personal memecoin wave. It even went by a section that each fascinated and unnerved Crypto Twitter as AI brokers started transacting on its chain.
Right here’s the way it bought right here.
Good friend.tech headlines Base’s “Onchain Summer season” fest
Base’s mainnet opened to builders in July 2023, and customers adopted in August. The interval after Coinbase lower the ribbon was promoted as “Onchain Summer season.” Within the first week, Base attracted 700,000 new customers, who introduced with them about $242 million in inflows.
Good friend.tech was the headline act of Coinbase’s summer season pageant. It was a social app that allowed customers to purchase and promote entry to their connections. The loudest voices on Crypto Twitter examined the trade’s latest toy, which additionally attracted the wealthy and well-known outdoors the group. In lower than two weeks after launching, it generated over $1 million in day by day charges, surpassing Bitcoin on the time.
It didn’t final lengthy.
By the tip of August, charges and transaction volumes had tanked, and the platform was declared “useless.”
A bit over a 12 months later, the crew relinquished management of the venture by ditching the admin rights of its sensible contracts.
Base rides its personal memecoin wave
The memecoin frenzy grew to become one of many defining crypto tales in recent times, drawing in political figures and public personalities. Finally, it prompted the US Securities and Change Fee to state that such tokens fall outdoors the scope of securities legal guidelines.
Solana is the go-to blockchain for memecoins. Its information exhibits the memecoin increase gaining momentum in late 2023, when its day by day lively addresses started climbing towards Ethereum’s ranges. In March 2024, Solana decisively surpassed Ethereum on that metric when Base customers began exhibiting some post-Good friend.tech indicators of life.
From March 19 to 25, Cointelegraph Journal discovered greater than 380,000 ERC-20 tokens deployed on Base. That exercise introduced contemporary liquidity into Base’s DeFi ecosystem, and by June 2024, the layer 2 had flipped Ethereum in lively addresses. It held on to that lead till December 2025.
AI brokers start transacting on Base
Within the latter half of 2024, AI brokers claimed the motive force’s seat in crypto. As with memecoins, early experiments took off on Solana, reminiscent of Goatseus Maximus, ai16z and Fact Terminal.
Builders launched agent-linked tokens, autonomous buying and selling bots and social accounts that introduced themselves as autonomous onchain actors.
Associated: Can Solana shed its memecoin picture in 2026?
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that crypto offers a pure monetary rail for AI techniques, as brokers lack the authorized id required to open conventional financial institution accounts.
On Base, focus shifted to AI brokers able to holding balances, tipping customers and interacting immediately with sensible contracts. In October 2024, Coinbase launched “Primarily based Brokers,” a toolkit that allowed customers to construct AI brokers outfitted with crypto wallets.
Essentially the most seen Base-native experiment was Virtuals Protocol, which enabled customers to create brokers tied to tokens and onchain addresses.
One such Virtuals agent, Luna (not associated to Terra), grew to become the primary on Base to autonomously execute onchain suggestions.
Virtuals later expanded to Solana in January 2025 to faucet into its bigger retail base. Nonetheless, exercise throughout AI-agent tokens quickly slowed, and Virtuals cooled with it.
The second coming of SocialFi on Base
Base’s 2023 debut was adopted by the breakout of Good friend.tech. In 2025, SocialFi returned to Base in a unique kind, sparked by deeper integration with Coinbase’s shopper ecosystem.
That push was tied to Coinbase’s “tremendous app” ambitions. Tremendous apps are platforms that help quite a lot of Twenty first-century requirements, reminiscent of messaging, digital banking, journey sharing and even meals supply.
Associated: Banks can’t appear to service crypto, even because it goes mainstream
Such platforms exist already in Asia. WeChat in China is used within the on a regular basis lives of greater than 1 billion customers, combining messaging, funds and commerce. South Korea’s KakaoTalk and Japan’s Line serve related features of their respective markets. Social media giants like X and Meta have mentioned they’re exploring related fashions.
In July 2025, Coinbase rebranded its pockets because the Base App, making its Ethereum layer 2 the default execution layer inside its pockets ecosystem.
On the heart of this section was Farcaster, a decentralized social community the place accounts are linked to crypto addresses. Posts, suggestions and token launches linked on to onchain exercise.
On the similar time, Zora, which permits creators to mint and distribute tokenized content material, noticed bursts of exercise in mid-2025 that contributed to measurable spikes in Base transactions and token launches. Tokens have been usually promoted on Farcaster.
The second coming of SocialFi on Base lasted longer than Good friend.tech, however curiosity light after the preliminary hype interval. On Feb. 9, 2026, Coinbase introduced it could sundown its Creator Rewards program and Farcaster-powered social feeds. The change doesn’t immediately have an effect on Zora customers, although exercise there has additionally cooled from its peak.
Base turns into Ethereum’s most lively layer 2
All through the primary three years, Base showcased the distribution energy of the biggest US alternate, just like how BNB Chain’s person exercise is influenced by Binance.
Apart from their technical variations, Binance has tried to distance itself from the blockchain it based by making an attempt to offer it its personal model, whereas Coinbase has stored Base near its orbit.
Coinbase and its blockchain have ridden the tides of rising tendencies reminiscent of memecoins and AI brokers whereas turning into the middle of creator economies and SocialFi purposes.
These tendencies got here and went, however they did push Base to the highest of the Ethereum layer-2 ladder. It now leads in customers, transactions, charges and whole worth locked, in response to information from Nansen and DefiLlama.
Tendencies onboarded customers and distribution introduced scale. Now, Base is consolidating its basis. Whether or not the unified stack cements its lead or merely bookends its first development period will outline its subsequent three years, as Ethereum’s focus shifts from L2s again to scaling the principle chain.
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