Base’s 3.5M Daily Users: Dissecting the Growth Engine Behind Coinbase’s L2
Title: Base’s 3.5M Daily Users: Dissecting the Growth Engine Behind Coinbase’s L2
By mid-2025, Base had surged to 3.5 million daily active users, joining the ranks of Arbitrum and Optimism atop the Ethereum Layer-2 landscape. But raw user counts only tell part of the story. To distinguish sustainable adoption from speculative froth, we must examine the true growth catalysts—SocialFi innovations, micro-meme economies, and Coinbase’s native fiat rails—then validate that traction on-chain and anticipate what comes next.
- Catalysts for Growth
A. The SocialFi Spark: Friend.tech and Beyond Friend.tech’s August 2023 debut marked on-chain SocialFi’s breakthrough. By monetizing private chat keys, it generated top revenue on Base, processing 1.2 million transactions in January 2024 and sustaining 25,000 DAUs in Q1 2024 (Dune Analytics). At its peak, Friend.tech drove $230 million in trading volume and onboarded 200,000+ users (CoinGecko). With sub-cent fees post-EIP-4844, Base made micro-transactions—and social tokens—financially viable, signaling that community-driven finance can rival DeFi.
B. Meme Coin Microeconomies: Low-Fee Launchpads Next, platforms like BaseMeme turned Base into a viral token factory. Between January and June 2025, over 400 meme-coin projects launched, yielding $55 million in trading volume. Politically themed tokens (MVP) and deflationary experiments (BRIUN) leveraged sub-$0.01 fees to spark rapid community engagement. While inherently speculative, these micro-economies have been indispensable in sustaining on-chain activity.
C. Seamless Fiat On-Ramps: Leveraging Coinbase’s 110M Users Finally, Coinbase’s Onramp SDK embeds fiat-to-crypto rails directly into Base apps. With saved payment methods, Coinbase’s 110 million verified users can buy 100+ tokens in seconds. Supporting 60+ fiat currencies and handling KYC server-side, Onramp cuts onboarding time dramatically—a retail appeal that differentiates Base from other L2s.
- Evidence on-Chain: Activity and Sustainability (Mid-2025 to Q3 2025)
By September 2025, weekly transactions topped 90 million—a 10% jump from December 2024—driven by airdrop rumors and sustained SocialFi and memecoin usage. Daily transactions have held above 11 million, while TVL rose from $4.7B in January 2025 to $5.1B in early September 2025. Average fees remain under $0.01, reinforcing Base’s low-cost edge and blending organic and speculative demand.
- Future Signals: Developer Advantage and Airdrop Hype
A. OP-Stack and the Coinbase Trust Halo Built on Optimism’s OP-Stack, Base offers a familiar, modular framework. Although Coinbase retains sequencer control today, the roadmap includes decentralization via fraud proofs. Enhanced tooling—Base-specific SDKs and docs—has cut development cycles: after a mid-2024 pullback, DAUs dipped to 1.5M before rebounding to 3.5M alongside 10M daily transactions (The Block). With 300+ active projects, Base now outpaces several L2 peers in developer activity.
B. Airdrop Speculation: What’s Next? Rumors of a BASE token have prompted wallets to exceed 500 transactions and incentivized creators on the Base App and Zora. Prospective cohorts include frequent bridgers, traders, and builders who deploy via Base Build. Although unconfirmed, Base’s calls to “build on Base” echo Optimism’s airdrop-driven engagement playbook.
Understanding these future signals is critical: founders who map their strategy to potential token incentives can align early with Base’s community ethos.
- Bridging Insight to Action
For builders ready to capitalize on Base’s momentum:
- Integrate SocialFi hooks: consider private-chat keys or community tokens to deepen engagement.
- Optimize micro-transactions: design around sub-cent fees, from meme-coins to micro-gaming.
- Embed Coinbase Onramp: slashing friction with fiat rails is a retail accelerator.
- Leverage OP-Stack tooling: use Base Build and the official docs to streamline deployment.
- Position for airdrop eligibility: drive genuine on-chain activity—bridging, swapping, minting—and track engagement metrics.
Conclusion
Base’s ascent to 3.5M DAUs reflects more than hype. By combining SocialFi innovations, low-fee token experiments, seamless fiat on-ramps, and robust developer infrastructure, Coinbase’s L2 has built a multifaceted growth engine. For founders, the challenge now is to craft dApps that tap these dynamics and endure as Base evolves beyond its next speculative cycle.