Base Ecosystem TVL Hits All-time High

Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 (L2) blockchain, has hit an all-time high in terms of total value locked (TVL) as investors look forward to Coinbase’s new smart wallet.

Base’s growth over the last 90 days has significantly outpaced competitors such as Arbitrum and Optimism. In that time period, Base’s TVL increased by 465% from $1.3B to $7.41B, whereas Arbitrum’s TVL increased by just 13%, and Optimism’s declined by 12%.

Activity and TVL on the chain began to increase dramatically after the implementation of EIP-4844 in March, which introduced proto-danksharding and reduced gas costs on L2s such as Base.

Adoption via Account Abstraction

Coinbase’s smart wallet aims to offer a seamless transition for users to move from their centralized exchange accounts to onchain dApps. It is a browser-based onchain wallet designed to eliminate friction points through account abstraction.

Account abstraction allows users to transact on Ethereum or a Layer 2 without initiating a transaction themselves by delegating it to a third party. This enables an onchain experience that is user-friendly and opens up possibilities such as gasless transactions, preauthorized payments, passkey signatures, and one-click transactions.

Investors and traders are speculating that the retail-friendly smart wallet will help onboard Coinbase’s user base into the world of DeFi. Jesse Pollak, a lead contributor to Base, posted on social media, “Prediction: by EOY, 90%+ of active onchain users will use smart wallets. How? we're going to onboard tens of millions of new users”

Coinbase’s smart wallet is currently available to use on testnet. While there is no official launch date confirmed for mainnet, many are anticipating a potential launch in June.