Base blockchain transactions jump on meme coin led frenzy

Crypto traders are seeking profit opportunities on the Base blockchain amid a meme coin-led frenzy for tokens issued on the network, several metrics show.

Base, built by crypto exchange Coinbase on OP Stack, went live for developers in August and initially saw muted growth. However, that has changed in the past few weeks, with funds locked on the network rising to nearly $1 billion on Tuesday from $450 million at the start of this month.

Locked value on Base. (DefiLlama)

Blockchain scanners show that transactional activity is up threefold to over 1.5 million a day from an average of under 500,000 a day in the past few months. The number of unique addresses has doubled to 65,000 wallets.

Some market observers say direct access to Base from Coinbase’s exchange and wallet applications could make it the first network that retail users use, instead of the several other options – fueling a frenzy.

Prices of tokens such as cat-themed toshi (TOSHI), thank you base god (TYBG), normie (NORMIE) and brett (BRETT) have risen as much as 1,300% over the past week, data shows, crossing over $1 billion in cumulative trading volumes.

Tokens of technical projects such as decentralized exchange Aerodrome’s AERO and Seamless’ SEAM rose as much as 90% in the past week, CoinGecko data shows.

That has generated the network $1.8 million in fees over the past 24 hours. Social sentiment on X has bumped in tandem, with scores of traders calling for a rotation of capital to the relatively new network.

Meanwhile, the immense popularity of meme coins on Base has resulted in high gas fees, which exceeded the fees paid by users before the Dencun upgrade, Optimism developer Michael Silberling pointed out on X.

Most of the transactions came from meme coin trading and trading bots designed to buy tokens in the first few minutes after issuance, contributing to network congestion and stuck transactions last week.