Seven Breakthroughs: Base Becomes the Public Chain with the Most Opportunities Outside of Solana
Written by: Zhou Zhou, Foresight News
Throughout 2024, two blockchain ecosystems have stood out: one is Solana, and the other is Base.
Although it has only been around for less than a year and a half, Base has already experienced seven breakthroughs, becoming the strongest L2 on Ethereum. At two significant moments in 2024 (the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF and Trump's election as the new president), it did not miss any opportunities to break through and expand the length and breadth of the crypto industry.
Since February of last year, I have consistently been optimistic about Base, from Degen (up to 50x), Clanker (up to 70x) to Virtuals (multiple interviews with founder Wee Kee)… except for friend.tech, I have almost not missed any important breakthrough events involving Base, witnessing its journey from inception to becoming the second most active blockchain innovation ecosystem in the crypto world.
History Reflects the Future, So I Have Compiled Seven Breakthrough Moments for Base.
First Breakthrough: friend.tech Rakes in $54 Million
Although friend.tech ultimately failed, it was the first step for Base to step onto the crypto stage.
The emergence of friend.tech in August 2023 marked Base's first breakthrough. This breakthrough attracted a large number of practitioners and well-known KOLs, allowing many to see Base for the first time. In its first month, friend.tech's revenue exceeded $2 million, with net deposits surpassing $33 million.
From August 2023 to May 2024, friend.tech's protocol revenue reached 17,056.5 ETH (approximately $54.647 million at the time), a figure that even surpassed most L2 protocol revenues, with a total user count reaching 909,861 unique addresses.
However, after May, friend.tech took a sharp downturn. Co-founder Racer posted on social media, hinting at the intention to migrate the friend.tech protocol off the Base platform, which immediately led to a significant drop in the price of the native token FRIEND. On the day of the announcement, the price of FRIEND fell to $1.01, with a 24-hour drop of 32.2%. Racer stated that friend.tech was marginalized and isolated within the Base community, labeled as "negative speculation."
This tense relationship led friend.tech to seek alternative paths. However, its development subsequently stagnated. At its peak, just two weeks after its launch on August 10, 2023, the platform had over 100,000 users; by July 2024, daily users had dropped to fewer than 100.
Second Breakthrough: Farcaster Users Surge by 200,000 in a Month, Degen Token Soars by Thousands of Times
Although friend.tech failed, another social product on Base—Farcaster—began its rise.
In February 2024, Farcaster exploded in popularity, reaching 200,000 users that month, marking Base's second breakthrough. According to Farcaster founder Dan Romero, daily active users reached 85,000 in April.
Farcaster then steadily grew, reaching 350,000 users in May; 500,000 users in June; and 600,000 users in August (the actual daily active user count should be between 4,000 and 50,000)… By January 24, 2025, Farcaster's total user count reached nearly 800,000, with protocol revenue hitting $2.53 million. Although Farcaster's daily active users fluctuated significantly over time, it continued to accumulate more users, waiting for the next opportunity to arise.
Farcaster itself experienced two notable breakthroughs, the first being between February and April 2024, when the Degen token soared by thousands of times, with FDV reaching nearly $1 billion. This left a deep impression on many traders regarding the Farcaster ecosystem.
However, at the end of April, the cryptocurrency market began to peak and plummet, and the Degen token was halved again and again. Farcaster also ceased its rapid growth and entered a period of adjustment.
Third Breakthrough: Three $1 Billion Tokens Emerge, Becoming the New Public Chain's Biggest "Dark Horse"
From March to April 2024, Solana led the entire crypto market's meme wave. During this wave, Base became the public chain that attracted the most capital outside of Solana.
During this period, tokens with a market cap of $1 billion, such as Aero, Brett, and Degen, appeared on Base, successfully capturing the overflow of funds from the Solana meme frenzy. At the same time, in terms of TVL, it surpassed Blast, becoming the third-largest L2 on Ethereum, only behind Arbitrum and OP.
During this time, Base not only became the "second-largest meme center" after Solana but also the third-largest L2, becoming the biggest dark horse in the crypto world in just six months.
Fourth Breakthrough: Surpassing Arbitrum, Becoming Ethereum's Largest L2
In August 2024, Base surpassed Arbitrum, becoming the true largest L2 on Ethereum.
According to my statistics, from August 2023 to August 2024, Base's total protocol revenue reached $70 million; Arbitrum's protocol revenue was $60 million, and OP's protocol revenue was $30 million; Scroll had $40 million; and ZKSync had $45 million.
Moreover, whether in terms of on-chain revenue, transaction volume, or the number of active addresses, Base far exceeded other L2s, becoming the de facto largest L2 on Ethereum, marking Base's fourth breakthrough.
Fifth Breakthrough: Base Launches cbBTC, Attracting $2.4 Billion in Capital Inflow
In September 2024, Base launched cbBTC, backed by Coinbase's over $60 billion Bitcoin reserves, achieving a TVL of $170 million within a week, competing with WBTC, marking its fifth breakthrough.
As of January 22, 2025, cbBTC's market size reached $2.4 billion, with 200,000 holders. This number is still rapidly growing. Currently, WBTC's market share is around $13 billion, while cbBTC is quickly approaching this figure.
Sixth Breakthrough: Clanker Ecosystem Rises, Three Tokens Reach $50 Million
In November 2024, the Clanker ecosystem rose, with three meme coins—LUM, ANON, and Clanker—each reaching $50 million. Once again, it captured the largest overflow of funds outside of Solana, gradually forming Base's application-based meme culture, marking Base's sixth breakthrough.
However, as the narrative of AI Agents further developed, funds on Base gradually flowed from the Clanker ecosystem to the Virtuals ecosystem. The liquidity on Base was insufficient to support two large ecosystems, leading to a gradual decline of the Clanker ecosystem tokens.
Seventh Breakthrough: AI Agent Wave, Base Stands on Equal Footing with Solana for the First Time
The Virtuals ecosystem rose, supporting five $100 million AI Agent tokens. At the same time, Solana also had five AI Agent tokens exceeding $100 million.
In past competitions, Base has always been in the "eternal second" position, surpassing many public chains but never able to match Solana's massive capital. However, in this round of AI Agent narratives, Base finally stood at the same height as Solana.
In January 2025, as the market cap of Virtuals tokens briefly reached $5 billion, the Base ecosystem saw five AI Agent tokens exceeding $100 million, including aixbt and others, which still have market caps exceeding $500 million. Base achieved parity with Solana, marking Base's seventh breakthrough.
In Conclusion
Base has been established for less than a year and a half, yet it has repeatedly surpassed other established public chains, first Blast, then OP, followed by Arbitrum, and now Solana. In this wave of AI Agents, Base has even shown momentum comparable to Solana.
Although Base still has a distance to cover in terms of liquidity compared to Solana, the peak market cap of $5 billion for Virtuals has once again demonstrated that Base has successfully increased the liquidity ceiling of its leading projects.
In these seven breakthroughs, Base effectively captured the massive influx of capital following the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024 and the flood of funds after Trump was elected as the new president of the United States in November 2024. Tokens such as Degen, Aero, Brett, Moonwell, Clanker, Virtual, AIXBT, and Luna, each with a market cap exceeding $100 million, have emerged, making Base the public chain with the most opportunities after Solana.
It can be anticipated that this will not be Base's last breakthrough; in 2025, more breakthrough products from Base will emerge.
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