The Total Value Locked (TVL) of Base L2 has recently surpassed Cardano, reaching $429.19 million after a 7% increase in the past week. Additionally, Heroes of Mavia has integrated with Base, which will allow the NFT-based game to enjoy lower gas fees and enhanced transaction efficiency through Base's infrastructure. Meanwhile, Coinbase introduced a new service to recover assets sent to unsupported blockchains, including BNB Chain and Polygon.
Base L2 Outperforms Cardano in TVL
The Total Value Locked (TVL) for Base L2 surged more than 7% in the past week, boosting the network’s TVL to $429.19 million. Most notably, this ranked Base above the legacy network and the 8th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization Cardano (ADA). Data from DeFiLlama shows that Cardano’s TVL currently stands at $400.64 million after it only managed to rise by just over 4% over the past week as well.
Although Base’s current TVL is still a fair bit down from the $500 million TVL it reached just six weeks after its mainnet launch, the recent uptick could be the early signs of a recovery.
Mavia Integrates with Base
In other Base news, Heroes of Mavia, a NFT-based multiplayer base-building strategy game, recently announced its collaboration with Base to enhance its mobile gaming ecosystem. The integration with Base is anticipated to greatly benefit Mavia, especially with the forthcoming implementation of EIP-4844, which is expected to reduce gas fees by 10-100x. This reduction is crucial for the efficiency of Mavia's in-game Ruby marketplace, where players trade 'Legendary' items for $RUBY and other cryptocurrencies. The collaboration likely became a reality because of Base's superior speed and low transaction costs, key factors for the game's ecosystem.
Base's infrastructure offers a very secure and reliable onboarding process for Mavia users, including dependable fiat on/off ramps, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and access to the broader Coinbase ecosystem. By taking advantage of the strengths of Base, Heroes of Mavia plans to realize its vision of building a more immersive, secure, and user-friendly gaming environment.
What is Base L2?
Base, incubated within Coinbase, is an Ethereum layer-2 solution that is aimed at massively scaling the on-chain user base. Leveraging the Bedrock release of the OP Stack in collaboration with Optimism, and inspired by Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844, Base is poised to revolutionize the crypto economy with its promise of up to 100x cost savings for Ethereum users.
At its core, Base prioritizes robust security by integrating with Ethereum's infrastructure, which means that it is leveraging the underlying security of one of the most secure blockchain platforms. Its scalability is unmatched, providing a much-needed solution for faster and more cost-effective transactions than what is currently possible on Ethereum's layer 1. This makes it especially suitable for a wide range of applications, including decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Designed with developers in mind, Base is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing for seamless deployment of existing Ethereum smart contracts. This developer-friendly approach, combined with its integration with Coinbase, makes it very easy for users to engage with on-chain applications. Users can easily transition to Base directly from Coinbase and interact with decentralized applications (DApps) using their Coinbase Wallet.
The architecture of Base is strategically designed as a layer 2 rollup, bundling transactions for efficient processing and settlement on the Ethereum chain. Initially managed by Coinbase, the sequencer role is set for decentralization, addressing some of the concerns about centralization that have been a topic of debate in the industry. Base is also developing a fraud proof system to guarantee the validity of transactions.
Getting started with Base is pretty straightforward, requiring users to set up a Coinbase Wallet, which serves as a gateway to engaging with Base DApps. Coinbase's roadmap for Base now mainly includes key milestones like the decentralization of the sequencer role and the integration of more Ethereum features to better scalability and user experience.
Coinbase Rolls Out Rescue Service for Lost Assets
Something that could positively impact Base L2 is the fact that Coinbase announced a service that will allow users to recover assets that were mistakenly sent to unsupported blockchains on the platform, including BNB Chain and Polygon. This service, which was announced on Feb. 27, is a big shift from previous situations where these assets were considered unrecoverable due to the absence of private key access by Coinbase employees and support channels. Users who want to use this recovery service simply have to provide their transaction ID and the inbound Coinbase wallet address.
The recovery of assets under $100 will be done free of charge, while a commission of 5% will apply to the retrieval of amounts exceeding this threshold. This development is particularly noteworthy given that, traditionally, crypto exchanges' wallets utilize multisig and offer technical support for numerous blockchains and assets. However, they may not support certain tokens or networks on their user interfaces because of regulatory compliance issues.
The retrieval of mistakenly sent assets is a pretty complex process that takes a lot of time, effort, and coordination, and often involves the involvement of senior executives who manage the exchange's multisig wallets. Binance, for example, charged around $500 for each retrieval operation of wrongly sent crypto assets in 2022.
Coinbase's new tool has already made some major strides, having recovered $160 million in lost digital assets from the Ethereum blockchain alone. Currently, about 3,000 ERC-20 tokens sent via BNB Chain and 800 of these tokens via Polygon have been mistakenly sent to Coinbase. The company also committed to continuously investigate and expand the feature to support even more assets and networks. However, it also warned that due to the technical complexities involved in the recovery process, it cannot guarantee the future eligibility of any specific asset for recovery.
