Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, faced its first outage since launching in 2023. The unexpected disruption temporarily halted block production and all transactions.
Temporary Pause of Base Network
On August 5, 2025, at 06:15 UTC, the Base team confirmed that its mainnet had stalled. This affected deposits, withdrawals, block production, and Flashblocks. Blockchain explorers such as BaseScan and OKLink had previously noted that block production had stopped at block height 33,792,704. While no immediate reason was given for the slowdown, the Base team resolved the issue within 30 minutes, restoring operations and placing the network under active monitoring for stability.
Spike in Token Activity on Base
Recently, the Base mainnet saw a surge in activity. It overtook Solana in daily token launches on July 24 and has maintained the lead since, according to Dune Analytics. On July 27, Base recorded over 54,000 new tokens, more than twice Solana's 25,460. This surge is largely driven by the rebranded Base App, which features Zora and Farcaster.
Preparation for Major Upgrades
Base is now gearing up for a series of technical upgrades aimed at enhancing network speed, reducing costs, and increasing decentralization. Key objectives include reducing confirmation times to just 200 milliseconds, keeping fees below $0.01, and scaling to over 200 transactions per second with an ultimate target of 1 million TPS.
Despite the brief downtime, Base continues to grow and shows significant activity. Upcoming upgrades and increasing user interest are positioning it as a leader among competitors.
