Base, the layer-2 blockchain network launched by Coinbase, is doing well in decentralized finance and the non-fungible token industries.
According to DeFi Llama, Base has become the biggest layer-2 network in crypto. It has 410 dApps in the decentralized finance industry. Some of its biggest DeFi ecosystem players are Aerodrome, Uniswap, Morpho Blue. and Moonwell.
Morpho, an AAVE rival, will likely continue growing after Coinbase announced that it will offer Bitcoin-backed loans on its platform.
Base’s DEX networks have continued to dominate the layer-2 industry in terms of volume. Protocols in its ecosystem have handled transactions worth $264 billion since its inception. This volume rose to $12.2 billion in the last seven days.
This growth is likely because of the growing Base meme coin ecosystem, which is now valued at over $2.6 billion. The biggest meme coins in its network are Brett, Akuma Inu, Toshi, and Degen.
Base has also become the biggest layer-2 network in the NFT space. Its NFT sales jumped by 45% in the last seven days to $8.3 million, while its buyers rose by 128% to over 15,000. Its cumulative NFT sales rose to over $62 million.
Further data by DappRadar shows that Base handled almost 40 million transactions in the last 30 days.
Arbitrum (ARB) and Polygon (POL) handled 6.21 million and 29.3 million, respectively. Base had 15 million unique active wallets, while the other two had 1.12 million and 3.69 million, respectively. Base is also growing its presence in the artificial intelligence and gaming industries.
These metrics mean that Base would likely receive a significant valuation if Coinbase decided to launch an airdrop. It would likely be bigger than Arbitrum, which has a market cap of $3.2 billion and a fully diluted valuation of $7.5 billion.
Optimism, another popular layer-2 network, has a market cap of $2.47 billion and an FDV of $7.85 billion. Therefore, Base would at least have an FDV of $7 billion.
There are signs that Coinbase will launch the Base airdrop in 2025. Its 2025 roadmap included a section on decentralization. That could be a sign that Coinbase is considering letting community members take part in its decision-making.
