Base reaches $14 billion TVL with low Ethereum fees

Base holds $14.42 billion in total value locked as of the 30-day period ending September 7, 2026. This total exceeds Arbitrum One’s $12.6 billion. The network processed 292 million user operations during that window while paying Ethereum only $8,800 in data, proof, and state-update fees. The $8,800 fee bill Base paid for 292 million operations is the practical result of the 2024 Dencun upgrade, which allowed rollups to use cheaper data lanes that expire after roughly 18 days rather than living on-chain forever. Before Dencun, rollups competed for space and gas with every other Ethereum transaction. The March 13, 2024, upgrade introduced blobs to reduce data availability costs. This change cut layer 2 transaction costs by a factor of 100 to 200 almost immediately. The average daily bill to Ethereum mainnet is roughly $290. The combined value on the two leading networks, Base and Arbitrum, exceeds $27 billion. Base recorded over 4 million daily transactions on multiple occasions in early 2026. Base’s rise started with a testnet on February 23, 2023, and a public mainnet launch on August 9, 2023.

Pollak shifts focus as Base management changes

Jesse Pollak is stepping back from leading the Base app to focus on the chain itself. He handed the app to Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie. Pollak called the first quarter of 2026 a punch in the face. He admitted social and creator coin experiments failed, leaving Base behind in several categories. Pollak himself launched a creator coin named $JESSE in November 2025, which debuted at a $6.5 million market cap before falling as much as 94%. Coinbase now prioritizes trading, payments, and AI agents. You should know that Base has no plans to issue a native token. This absence of a token removes the speculative incentive dynamic that drives networks like Arbitrum or Optimism. Base uses the OP Stack to batch transactions off-chain. This infrastructure provides a path toward interoperability with other Superchain members.

Base uses its Coinbase distribution advantage to drive usage for protocols like Aerodrome and Morpho. Base grew from $2.1 billion in TVL in October 2024 to roughly $12.8 billion by May 2026. The focus on social left Base behind in categories like perpetuals and prediction markets. For instance, Base accounts for less than 0.1% of total perpetual futures open interest across all chains.

Centralized sequencers create operational risks

Base relies on a centralized sequencer operated by Coinbase. A single operator controlling transaction ordering creates risks including censorship and liveness failure. Coinbase experienced a sequencer outage in February 2025 that halted the entire Base chain. This dependency creates a problem for protocols moving real-world assets that require sequencer neutrality. If the chain does not become more decentralized, it could face classification as a Non-Decentralized Finance Trading Protocol under Sec. 301 of the CLARITY Act. Arbitrum uses the Nitro stack from Offchain Labs. Optimism’s flagship chain uses its own stack. zkSync Era uses zero-knowledge proof technology. These networks handle millions of transactions but have smaller ecosystems than Base or Arbitrum. Espresso Systems remains the leading shared sequencer network after Astria shut down in December 2025. The industry sees production-grade decentralized sequencing as 12 to 18 months away for most major L2s. The Linea outage in June 2024 lasted approximately one hour and showed how a single entity can pause a sequencer to prevent further bridging during an exploit. Base provides a home for Coinbase’s onchain products.

Will the Base team successfully transition to a unified software architecture to reduce its dependency on external service providers?