Base is moving to a unified, internally managed stack in what is expected to be the biggest architectural change since launch.
After debuting in 2023 as a rollup built on Optimism’s OP stack, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 is now integrating that software into its internal distribution, which will allow for faster upgrades and greater autonomy over its technical roadmap.
It’s been three years since Base launched its testnet. The network experienced the SocialFi explosion and rode its own wave of meme coins. Cryptocurrency Twitter even went through a phase that fascinated and unnerved it as AI agents started transacting on its chain.
Here’s how we got here.
Friend.tech headlines Base’s ‘Onchain Summer’ fest
Base’s mainnet opened to builders in July 2023, followed by users in August. The period after Coinbase cut the ribbon was promoted as “On-Chain Summer.” In its first week, Base gained 700,000 new users and generated approximately $242 million in inflows.
Friend.tech was the headline act at Coinbase’s summer festival. It was a social app that allowed users to buy and sell access to connections. Crypto Twitter’s loudest voices tested the industry’s latest toys, and even attracted the rich and famous outside of the community. Within two weeks of its launch, daily fees exceeded $1 million, surpassing Bitcoin at the time.
It didn’t last long.
By the end of August, fees and trading volumes plummeted and the platform was declared “dead.”
A little over a year later, the team relinquished administrative rights to the smart contract and relinquished control of the project.
Base rides its own meme coin wave
The memecoin frenzy has become one of the defining topics of cryptocurrency conversation in recent years, captivating even politicians and celebrities. Ultimately, this led the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to state that such tokens are outside the scope of securities laws.
Solana is the go-to blockchain for meme coins. The data shows that the meme coin boom gained momentum in late 2023, with daily active addresses beginning to rise towards Ethereum levels. In March 2024, when Base users started showing signs of post-Friend.tech, Solana decisively outperformed Ethereum on that metric.
From March 19th to 25th, Cointelegraph Magazine found over 380,000 ERC-20 tokens deployed on Base. This activity brought new liquidity to Base’s DeFi ecosystem, with Layer 2 flipping active addresses Ethereum by June 2024. It maintained that lead until December 2025.
AI agent starts trading on Base
In late 2024, AI agents claimed the driver’s seat of cryptocurrencies. Similar to meme coins, early experiments such as Goatseus Maximus, ai16z, and Truth Terminal began on Solana.
Developers have launched agent-linked tokens, autonomous trading bots, and social accounts that represent themselves as autonomous on-chain actors.
Related: Will Solana be able to shed its meme coin image in 2026?
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that cryptocurrencies provide a natural financial rail for AI systems because agents lack the legal status required to open a traditional bank account.
At Base, the focus shifts to an AI agent that can maintain balances, tip users, and interact directly with smart contracts. In October 2024, Coinbase introduced “Based Agents,” a toolkit that allows users to build AI agents with cryptocurrency wallets.
The Base-native experiment that attracted the most attention was the Virtuals Protocol, which allows users to create agents associated with tokens and on-chain addresses.
One such Virtuals agent, Luna (no relation to Terra), was the first in Base to autonomously run on-chain hints.
Virtuals then expanded to Solana in January 2025 to take advantage of a larger retail base. However, activity across AI agent tokens quickly slowed down, and Virtuals cooled down accordingly.
The return of SocialFi on Base
Following Base’s 2023 debut, Friend.tech broke out. In 2025, SocialFi returned to Base in a different form in the wake of deeper integration with Coinbase’s consumer ecosystem.
That push was tied to Coinbase’s “super app” ambitions. Super apps are platforms that support a variety of 21st century necessities such as messaging, digital banking, ridesharing, and even food delivery.
Related: Even though cryptocurrencies are becoming mainstream, banks seem unable to service them.
Such platforms already exist in Asia. China’s WeChat is used in the daily lives of more than 1 billion users, combining messaging, payments, and commerce. South Korea’s KakaoTalk and Japan’s LINE serve similar functions in their respective markets. Social media giants such as X and Meta have said they are considering similar models.
In July 2025, Coinbase rebranded the wallet to Base App and made Ethereum Layer 2 the default execution layer within the wallet ecosystem.
Central to this phase was Farcaster, a decentralized social network where accounts are linked to cryptographic addresses. Posts, tips, and token activations are directly connected to on-chain activity.
At the same time, Zora, which allows creators to create and distribute tokenized content, saw a spike in activity in mid-2025, with a noticeable spike in Base transactions and token launches. Tokens were frequently promoted on Farcaster.
SocialFi’s rebirth at Base lasted longer than Friend.tech, but interest waned after the initial hype period ended. On February 9, 2026, Coinbase announced that it would be discontinuing its Creator Rewards program and social feed powered by Farcaster. Although this change does not directly impact Zora users, activity on Zora has also cooled down from its peak.
Base becomes Ethereum’s most active layer 2
Throughout its first three years, Base demonstrated the distribution power of the largest US exchange, such as how BNB Chain’s user activity is influenced by Binance.
Technical differences aside, Binance is trying to distance itself from the blockchain it founded by giving it its own brand, while Coinbase continues to move Base closer to its orbit.
Coinbase and its blockchain have become central to the creator economy and SocialFi applications, riding the wave of new trends like meme coins and AI agents.
These trends have come and gone, but they have propelled Base to the top of Ethereum’s Layer 2 ladder. According to data from Nansen and DefiLlama, the company currently leads in terms of number of users, number of transactions, fees, and total amount locked.
Trends onboarded users and distribution brought scale. Now, Base is strengthening its foundations. As Ethereum’s focus shifts from L2 back to mainchain scaling, the next three years will be determined by whether the unified stack consolidates its leadership or simply ends its initial period of growth.
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