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Coinbase exchange’s layer-2 scaling solution, Base, has outranked many of its peers on sustained growth since the start of this year. According to data from DeFiLlama, the Base Total Value Locked (TVL) has now jumped to its all-time high (ATH) in value at $1.784 billion. Base crossed the $1 billion milestone earlier in March.
Base-Optimism flip
In relation to their relative ages, Base is a relatively newer protocol compared to Optimism. However, the emergence of Base came with a very defined embrace that has helped it keep up pace with growth figures.
Alex DovbnyaWhile it currently boasts of a TVL ATH of $1.78 billion, Optimism has only managed to rake in $878.62 million. Though Base was designed using the OP Stack, both layer-2 protocols currently operate on a very different adoption rhythm.
On Base, the largest application is Aerodrome with a TVL of over $712 million. This protocol is also deployed on Optimism, however, with $147.01 million in value locked. The other intersecting application in the top five for both Optimism and Base is Uniswap. Again, the TVL of Uniswap on Base is $314 million, while that of Optimism comes in at $73.97 million.
The OP Stack ecosystem itself is bigger than the duo of Base and Optimism, with other DeFi, gaming and media protocols designed using the technology. Popular examples on this front include opBNB, Farcaster and Zora Network, among others.
While each of these protocols has recorded impressive growths over the past year, Base remains in the lead, per current data.
OP Stack and growth hurdles
Despite the growth of Base and its recognition on the market, the protocol still faces significant backlash from critics. Most of the conversation in this regard hinges on the emergence of meme coins with a very short shelf life.
Activities on Base have often forced network congestion that generally leads to a halt in the Coinbase ecosystem as a whole. The OP Stack ecosystem is also known to suffer attacks, with Sonne Finance’s $20 million exploit one of the latest in the ecosystem.
Alex Dovbnya
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin