Base, the Ethereum layer-2 protocol developed by crypto exchange Coinbase, has recently witnessed a surge in its activities, resulting in a significant increase in its daily active addresses.
According to data from the on-chain analytics platform IntoTheBlock, the increase in Base’s daily active addresses can be linked to the launch of Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC) and the introduction of the Base Name Service (BNS).
Base Active Addresses Surge
Coinbase launched cbBTC on Base and Ethereum on September 12, months after integrating the Lightning Network for bitcoin (BTC) transfers on the protocol. The wrapped token is backed 1:1 by BTC and held by the crypto exchange. It offers users access to several decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, protocols, use cases, and features.
In less than two weeks after its launch, cbBTC has garnered over 3,500 users, with an average of $472 million in BTC settled on Base daily.
Although cbBTC contributes significantly to the growth of Base’s daily active addresses, IntoTheBlock said the hype around BNS is playing an even bigger role.
Coinbase launched the Basenames service on August 21. The service allows users to establish their identity on the network by registering human-readable names for their addresses. Like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), it ensures a unified name service and on-chain identity experience for everyone on Base.
Basenames Play Major Role
Barely three days after Coinbase introduced Basenames, the number of daily active addresses on Base reached a record 1.05 million. The figure has now doubled and surpassed two million just a month afterward.
Data from the Ethereum layer-2 analytics platform GrowThePie shows that Base currently accounts for 70% of the active addresses among layer-2 networks based on Ethereum, followed by Arbitrum, which accounts for 9.6%. Base surpassed Arbitrum in late June and has remained ahead of the protocol since then. Over the past week, Base has seen over 6.8 million active addresses, while Arbitrum recorded less than 943,000 addresses.
It is worth mentioning that cbBTC has faced many criticisms while contributing to Base’s growth. The crypto community has raised concerns about Coinbase’s lack of transparency in its Bitcoin reserves and the token’s user agreement, which suggests the exchange would not fully reimburse users for BTC lost due to malicious activity or unforeseen events.