TVL突破 3 billion USD, DEGEN increased by over 20 times, what else can be played on the Base chain?

*Author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher*

Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

In the last two days of March, the MEME coin mfercoin on the Base chain created a surge of over 100 times within 6 hours of its launch, causing a stir in the crypto community.

mfercoin is a meme token issued by Sartoshi, the founder of the well-known NFT project Mfers, with an opening price of about $0.0015, peaking at $0.31, with a cumulative increase of over 200 times, now retreating to $0.18.

Next, Doodles founder poopie issued the meme coin POOP, which broke the $50 million market cap at launch, making it a top priority for crypto community users to catch up with the meme hype on Base.

In fact, since the Ethereum Cancun upgrade, data on the Base chain has entered a phase of explosive growth. In the second week after Cancun went live (March 25), Dune data showed that Base added about 850,000 new users last week, setting a historical record for new user numbers.

In just 10 days, the TVL increased by over $1.5 billion. According to L2Beat data, as of April 1, the value of crypto assets locked on the Base chain has exceeded $3 billion (currently $3.2 billion), with a 65.4% increase in the past week. TVL has jumped to third place in the Layer 2 sector, with Arbitrum (TVL of $17.13 billion) and OP Mainnet (TVL of $8.52 billion) in first and second places, respectively.

In addition to the growth of on-chain TVL, the prices of tokens within the ecosystem have also risen sharply. Among them, the MEME coin DEGEN on the social application Farcaster has seen its price rise from about $0.0014 on March 13 to over $0.06 on April 1, with an increase of over 40 times in the past half month; the token AERO on the DEX platform Aerodrome has increased by over 100% in the past week, currently priced at $1.4.

The explosive growth of TVL and meme token prices within the ecosystem has made the Base ecosystem the hottest topic in the current crypto market, with a large number of domestic and foreign KOLs starting to focus on the Base chain and its ecological applications.

Based on past experiences in the development of public chain ecosystems, once a public chain gains momentum, its on-chain ecosystem will also explode, with new opportunities emerging in areas such as native DEX, lending, native Meme, NFT, and Social. So, what participation opportunities are there in the Base ecosystem? Why has the recent heat of the Base ecosystem been so high?

Why is Base Chain Data Exploding?

The recent significant growth in Base chain data may be driven by two main factors: first, the EIP-4844 proposal reduced Base chain gas fees, boosting transaction demand and ecosystem development; second, Coinbase's continuous empowerment of the Base chain.

Since the adoption of the EIP-4844 proposal on March 16, gas fees on the Base chain briefly dropped from around $0.58 to $0.07, and the cost of submitting data to L1 DA also fell from hundreds of thousands of dollars daily to a few thousand or hundreds of dollars, attracting a large number of users. The number of active user addresses on that day increased to 850,000, with completed transactions exceeding 2.06 million, setting a historical record.

However, the rapidly increasing number of active users on the Base chain quickly drove gas fees up, even exceeding the costs before the Cancun upgrade. On March 26, the gas fee for each transaction on the chain reached as high as $9.9.

In response, Base core contributor @jessepollak stated on Twitter that while EIP-4844 reduced Base fees, it released over five times the previous transaction demand, causing gas fees to surge. The team is already working to reduce network gas fees.

Base team member Roberto Bayardo stated that starting March 27, they aimed to increase throughput by 50% and observe the impact. If all goes well, they will increase throughput again next week, aiming to reach at least double the current target.

As of March 29, the gas fee on the Base chain was about $0.5, which is on par with the levels before the Cancun upgrade.

As a Layer 2 network launched by Coinbase, Base naturally benefits from the vast user base and strong asset accumulation of Coinbase, leading to support from related resources, creating a synergy between the Base chain and the Coinbase exchange and wallet ecosystem.

First, regarding resource intercommunication between the exchange and the chain, on February 29, Base announced that one of its key focuses for 2024 is smart wallets.

Coinbase's new smart wallet (the AA wallet has been launched on the Base Sepolia testnet) allows ordinary users to generate accounts directly using their mobile or computer devices and Google accounts, eliminating the need for cumbersome operations like mnemonic phrases and extensions. New users can directly use their Coinbase account balance to pay gas fees or purchase tokens on the chain, lowering the user threshold and laying the foundation for attracting users and funds to the Base chain on a large scale.

In addition, Coinbase intends to move some exchange operations to the Base chain. On March 27, Coinbase's VP of Consumer Products, Max Branzburg, stated that Coinbase would store more enterprise and customer USDC balances on Base.

With the boost from the EIP-4844 proposal and Coinbase, the Base chain has also welcomed new opportunities, with on-chain applications and MEME entering a period of rapid growth.

According to DeFiLlama data, as of April 1, there are 240 applications on the Base chain, with locked TVL exceeding $1.1 billion, an increase of over 149% in the past half month. The DEX platform Aerodrome has captured fees exceeding $2.61 million, ranking in the top fifteen of the entire crypto market.

However, it is important to note that the Base ecosystem is still in its early stages, and there are more risks. Users should be cautious when choosing projects, such as the OVER and BACK betting meme coin combination that was hot on March 20, which lost its momentum in less than a day.

How Much Do You Know About Base Ecosystem Applications?

1. Decentralized Social Protocol Farcaster and Ecosystem Applications

Farcaster is a decentralized social media protocol created by former Coinbase executive Dan Romero and others. It serves as a Web3 social infrastructure, allowing developers to build various new social applications based on this social network, while users can freely move their social identities and data between these applications.

At the end of January this year, Farcaster launched a new feature called Frames, which can turn any content published on Farcaster into interactive applications, similar to the mini-program feature in WeChat, allowing users to interact with it.

Based on Farcaster, the official team developed the social application Warpcast, which has a user interface and functionality similar to Twitter, where users can post, follow, comment, interact, and build their communities.

Users who want to participate in Farcaster can do so by engaging with applications built on it. Download and use the Warpcast App, registration requires $5, approximately 35 RMB.

Currently, there are also decentralized video platforms like Darkula (similar to TikTok) and social citation products like Jam built on Farcaster.

On March 31, Bloomberg reported that Farcaster developer Merkle Manufactory is about to complete a funding round led by Paradigm, with an estimated valuation of about $1 billion.

Currently, the Farcaster protocol has not issued a token.

2. DEGEN

DEGEN was initially an airdrop reward token for participants in the Farcaster DEGEN channel. It started as a MEME coin but now has a large number of developers, crypto content creators, and enthusiasts buying the token, becoming a leading token on the Base chain, used for tipping posts in Farcaster ecosystem applications.

The total initial supply of DEGEN tokens is 37 billion, with plans to eventually airdrop 70% of the total supply. During the early launch period, 15% of the total supply was airdropped to active members of the Farcaster DEGEN channel. The token distribution rules are based on Farcaster users' likes, retweets, and followers to earn corresponding Degen points, along with holding some community-related NFTs.

On February 21, DEGEN announced the completion of an angel round financing of 490.5 ETH (worth about $1.47 million at the time), led by 1confirmation, with participation from Farcaster OG and others. The funds will be used to develop the DEGEN ecosystem and community.

DEGEN is now the most active channel on Farcaster, and the DEGEN token has been integrated into the Base ecosystem's social video application Drakula, supporting tips using DEGEN tokens.

As of April 1, the DEGEN token is priced at $0.06, with a market cap of $1.92 billion.

3. DEX Leader Aerodrome

Aerodrome is a decentralized trading platform forked from the OP ecosystem's DEX Velodrome, and it is the largest DEX by trading volume within the Base ecosystem.

In early February, the native token AERO of Aerodrome was launched on the Coinbase platform; on February 27, it announced receiving investment from the Coinbase Ventures-led Base ecosystem fund, with the specific amount undisclosed, through the purchase of Aerodrome's native token AERO.

As of April 1, the AERO token is priced at $1.4, with an FDV market cap of $1.25 billion.

4. SocialFi Application Friend.tech

Friend.tech is a SocialFi application built on the Base chain, with the core concept of turning users' influence on Twitter into tradable tokens called "KEY."

In simple terms, Twitter KOLs can bind their accounts to Friend.tech and issue social tokens KEY, allowing users to purchase KEY to gain specific privileges, such as accessing specific channels to browse content.

When it was launched in August last year, Friend.tech was once a blockbuster product on the Base chain, gaining immense popularity.

On March 13, Friend.tech announced that its V2 version would be released a week after April 20, featuring new functionalities like Money Club, a new points program, and customizable curves.

5. Pre-sale MEME Coin ROOST

ROOST is a new MEMECOIN on the BASE chain, which started its pre-sale on March 22, allowing users to deposit ETH in exchange for ROOST tokens. In less than 24 hours after its launch, the pre-sale raised $12.5 million, becoming a new hype project in the crypto community. On March 26, ROOST opened at $0.07, peaked at $0.135, and is currently priced at $0.05, with a market cap of $47.7 million.

6. NFT and MEME Project Base Gold

Base Gold is a MEME project on the Base chain, primarily featuring Base Gold NFTs and the MEME token TYBG.

Among them, the Base Gods NFT avatar series is themed around the image of Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, consisting of 809 NFTs, commemorating the launch of the Base mainnet on August 9, with a current floor price of 1.23 ETH.

The total issuance of the TYBG token is 12.3 billion, currently priced at $0.00045, with a circulating market cap of $55.39 million.

7. Meme Coin mfercoin Issued by Mfers Founder

mfercoin is a meme token issued by Sartoshi, the founder of the well-known NFT project Mfers, on the Base chain, with a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens, no pre-sale, and liquidity injected for about 2% of the total supply after launch. Holders of mfers NFTs and artists who have collaborated with mfers NFTs can receive airdrop allocations.

According to Dexscreener data, mfercoin gained immense popularity after its launch, with the token price continuously rising from an opening price of about $0.0015 to a peak of $0.31, with a cumulative increase of over 200 times, now retreating to $0.18, with a market cap of $186 million.

8. Meme Coin POOP Issued by Doodles Founder

On the day after mfercoin caused a stir in the crypto market, Doodles founder poopie announced the issuance of the meme coin POOP on the Base chain, also with a total issuance of 1 billion tokens, which briefly exceeded a $50 million market cap at launch.

However, after its launch, the POOP token did not receive user enthusiasm, dropping from a peak price of $0.03 to its current price of $0.009, forming a Christmas tree shape in its price chart, with a market cap shrinking to $8.9 million, a reduction of three-fifths from its peak.