Since Coinbase launched its new Layer-2 network, Base, there has been a lot of activity among daily crypto users, major brands, and unfortunately, some malicious actors. Coinbase’s Onchain Summer festival attracted many new users to the ecosystem with a three-week campaign celebrating the launch of Base.
Quick Start on Base Network
According to Dune Analytics, as of August 16, over 700,000 new users have joined the Base network, and a total of $242 million has been bridged to the network since then. The activity on the network peaked on August 10 with over 136,000 daily active users. According to DeFi Llama, the transaction volume on the network created a surprising fee of $2.8 million, and the total value locked (TVL) increased to $170.5 million.
The network also announced the participation of Coca-Cola, one of the world’s largest non-alcoholic beverage brands, and released its own NFT collection on the network.
Major players in the crypto industry are also making progress in joining the network. On August 16, Synthetix, a DeFi derivatives protocol, announced that a proposal for its integration into the Base network had been unanimously approved by the Spartan Council, the governance DAO of the protocol.
One of the most notable product launches on Base is the decentralized social (DeSo) network Friend.tech, which allows crypto users to tokenize their social networks by buying and selling “tokens” of their friends. According to Dune Analytics, the social media platform has seen a trading volume of 7,736 Ethereum since its launch on August 11.
The music NFT platform anotherblock released previously unheard chain versions of electronic music producers Boys Noize and Laidback Luke on August 14. Trust Wallet, a self-custody service owned by Binance, and Fireblocks, an institutional-grade digital asset platform, have also added support for the Base Network since its launch.
Ethereum advocate Anthony Sassano shared his praises for decentralized applications and on-chain activities, predicting that centralized exchanges would ultimately be nothing more than ramps for Ethereum’s price.
Base Network Targeted by Attacks
Despite the overall enthusiasm of the wider crypto community, the launch and public availability of the network have also attracted the attention of malicious actors with a series of exploits and rug pulls. On August 14, RocketSwap, one of the decentralized exchanges (DEX), announced that they had fallen victim to an exploit in which an estimated $865,000 was stolen from the protocol.
The latest incident occurred on August 17 when crypto lender SwirlLend experienced a rug pull. After deleting their social media accounts and website, the attackers reportedly transferred approximately $290,000 worth of crypto assets from SwirlLend on Base and an additional $1.7 million from Linea. They later laundered a total of 253.2 ETH through the Tornado Cash crypto mixer.
However, malicious actors have been lurking around the network since its mainnet launch. On July 31, the value of a meme coin called “BALD,” themed after Brian Armstrong, plummeted by 85% after a developer suddenly withdrew $1.9 million in liquidity from the token pools. The developer denied orchestrating a rug pull.
