Stablecoin activity has changed over the past year, with Base emerging as the busiest L2 chain. Base, driven by trading and DeFi, is leaving the rest of L2 behind.
Base is another fast-growing hub for stablecoin transfers. chain is carrying $USDCone of the most active stablecoins over the past year.
As a cryptopolitan reported Previously, Solana had also seen an outbreak of stablecoin activity, indicating that users appreciated the low-cost, high-speed network and user-oriented apps. The transition to using stablecoins signals that the chain is returning to financial infrastructure after abandoning its previous narrative.
supply of $USDC and other stablecoins hit a record on Base in January of this year.
Base stablecoin soared to a new record in January, mainly due to new coins. $USDC Inflow. |Source: Dune Analytics
Circle also became a top 3 app on the chain. As Base remains tokenless, stablecoins are key to building liquidity pairs. Uniswap also emerged as the most widely used feature on the chain, further increasing demand for stablecoins.
The chain reacted to expectations that stablecoins would become the primary use case for cryptocurrencies. Although yields are not officially allowed yet, there are multiple opportunities to generate yields in Base.
base carry $USDC mainly
Over 90% of the stablecoin supply on Base is $USDC. Base holds a total of $4.81 billion in stablecoins, ahead of Arbitrum’s $3.75 billion and Hyperliquid’s $4.6 billion. Despite trying to become a payments network, Polygon still lags behind with $3.4 billion in stablecoin supply.
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The recent concentration of stablecoins shows that L2 is becoming less attractive due to liquidity fragmentation. Additionally, bridging is typically considered burdensome due to fees and risk of loss. Bridging and usage of stablecoins on other L2 chains has slowed down over the past year, largely coinciding with airdrop farming.
Base positions the network as a platform for payment apps, along with Solana, Polygon, and others. With the rise of stablecoin payments Around the world, older chains have abandoned other less active use cases, such as: $NFT Or a game.
Base focuses on finance as its main use case
Base was created as a cheap chain for fun on-chain activities such as NFTs, memes, and DEX trading, but in 2026 the chain switched to decentralized finance.
Just over 30% of Base activity is dedicated to financial operations based on L2 data.
More than 30% of Base’s activities are devoted to financial operations. |Source: GrowThePie
Base also received a boost from lending expansion, primarily through the Morpho and Aave protocols. The wave of decentralized lending continued in the previous period, with Base primarily used for perpetual futures trading through Aerodrome.
Base is the main hub for select loan vaults, with Gauntlet and Steakhouse also among the most active apps. Demand for safes and transactions also increases $USDC as a major source of liquidity.
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