- Base, the network created by Coinbase, has stalled in the past few months.
- The Total Value Locked (TVL) of assets in its ecosystem has retreated.
- The developers have integrated Chainlink automation in the network.
Coinbase, the biggest US crypto exchange, launched Base, a few months ago with a lot of fanfare. However, recent trends show that activity in the Optimism-powered network has waned while its market share has retreated.
One area to look at Base is its performance in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) industry. According to DeFi Llama, the Total Value Locked (TVL) in the ecosystem has moved downwards in the past few months. It peaked at over $450 million in December and has now declined to $374 million.
A closer look at its ecosystem shows that most of its DeFi dApps have lost funds in the past 30 days. Aerodrome, the biggest DeFi application in Base, has lost over 12% in the past 30 days to $106.7 million. Other platforms like Seamless Protocol, Compound, and Friend.tech have also lost assets in this period.
Base has also been overtaken by Manta and PulseChain in terms of assets. Manta, a layer-2 network, has seen its assets surge by 428% in the past 30 days to over $428 million. Pulsechain has $386 million worth of assets.
A look beneath the surface shows that things are not going on well for Base. In addition to DeFi TVL, the other key metric you need to look at is stablecoin’s volume in the network. This is notable since most traders use stablecoins to interact with blockchains.
Base has over $294 million worth of stables. While this is a good metric, it has been stagnant at this level in the past few months, signaling that the platform is not growing as fast.
Base is working to improve its platform behind the scenes. Last week, the developers provided an update about their upcoming migration of its test network from Goerli to Sepolia. This migration will conclude on February 9th. It will help the network by integrating more with Optimism and also fostering app development.
The other important Base news was that it incorporated Chainlink Automation in its ecosystem. In a statement, the developers said that this move will help to make the platform better for developers. Johann Eid, the CBO at Chainlink said:
“Combining Chainlink’s offchain computation capabilities with Base’s highly scalable layer-2 network enables developers to create next-generation Web3 experiences that support the adoption of the verifiable web.”
These developments are happening at a time when the Coinbase stock price has entered a deep bear market, falling by over 33% from its highest point this year. This decline happened as the prices of Bitcoin and other coins dived after the spot Bitcoin ETFapproval.
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