Base TVL Spikes Above $8B Following Stablecoin Surge

The total value locked (TVL) in Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network developed by Coinbase, has more than doubled over the past year.

Base’s TVL has increased from $3.9 billion to $8.4 billion over the last 12 months, according to data from Token Terminal. The surge has made Base the leading L2 blockchain by ecosystem TVL – this refers to the total U.S. dollar value of assets deposited in applications across a blockchain. For context, Ethereum’s ecosystem currently holds $213.9 billion in TVL.

In the past month alone, Base’s TVL has grown by nearly 16%, according to data from Token Terminal. Arbitrum One currently holds the second-highest TVL among L2 networks, followed by Polygon PoS in third.

The jump in Base’s TVL shows that more users are trusting and using the network. One key driver behind this, according to experts, is that Binance.US now supports ETH and USDC on Base. That integration, announced earlier this year, makes it easier for people to use the network without moving assets through Ethereum’s mainnet.

Token Terminal notes that the top six protocols on the Base network account for 93% of the total ecosystem TVL. These protocols include Morpho, Aerodrome, and Uniswap, among others. And of the top applications on Base, most have backing from either Coinbase (Circle) or Coinbase Ventures (Morpho, Aerodrome, Uniswap, Fluid, Euler, etc.), the Token Terminal report noted.

Stablecoins Boost TVL

Furthermore, approximately 45% of the total ecosystem TVL comes from stablecoin collateral deposits, mainly in Circle’s USDC and EURC. USDC is currently the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization at nearly $61 billion, according to DeFiLlama.

The stablecoin market has experienced a massive surge in recent years as institutional interest grows and regulations ease. The sector’s market cap stands at around $245 billion, a nearly $3 billion increase in the past week alone. Tether’s USDT leads with a $153 billion market cap.