Following Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, Base’s TVL metrics reach unprecedented levels. Data from L2 Beat shows that the total value locked hit a new all-time high of $2.16 billion. The current total locked-up volume of the Ethereum Layer 2 network is $36.6 billion. Despite occupying fourth place, Base’s 7-day TVL growth has nearly doubled. The hard fork implemented Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844, which reduces layer 2 transaction fees by introducing innovative features called data blobs or proto-dank sharding.
As earlier reported, the estimated gas costs associated with a DEX swap are: the gas fee for Aribitrum is estimated to be reduced from $2.02 to $0.4, Optimism from $1.42 to $0.28, and Base from $0.58 to $0.01.
Notably, Base handled about 440,000 transactions before Dencun. However, this figure swiftly reached two million following the upgrade. A few days after the Dencun upgrade, daily transactions on base jumped to a record 2 million on March 16. With growth on the network showing no signs of slowing down, the network was poised for more.
Additionally, new users on Base have notched up an all-time high. In mid-March, just days after the upgrade was triggered, the figure hit 666,866, an average of 3,000% surge. Although Dencun brought a reduction in transaction fees, which led to a spike in network demand, this uptick proved to be short-lived.
Amid a surge in network metrics, gas fees skyrocketed by a staggering 2000% on March 20, reaching an average of $2 during periods of intense network congestion. Although fees swiftly returned to their usual $0.2 level as activity levels subsided, they surged once more over the weekend, reaching $1.9—an 1100% increase.
Ethereum L2 Fees Culprit
Insight from prominent on-chain data investigator Michael Silberling suggests that the influx of trading bots onto the network has translated into increased demand and prices for meme coins on Base, consequently leading to elevated gas fees.
Launched by Coinbase in August, Base is the 4th largest network in the Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem, with a 5.7% market share. Arbitrum and Optimism still dominate the Layer 2 ecosystem, with a total TVL of $24 billion and market shares of 42% and 23%, respectively.