Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, doubled its total value locked (TVL) to $2.13 billion in a month, likely fueled by a surge in memecoin activity. Meanwhile, RippleX is facing a technical glitch impacting Automated Market Maker (AMM) pools on the XRP Ledger, advising users to avoid affected pools until a fix is implemented. Additionally, Polygon's zkEVM experienced some downtime due to a blockchain sequencer issue, Polygon has assured people that they are working hard to find solutions to the problem.
Base's TVL Soars
The Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, has seen a big surge in its total value locked (TVL), doubling to $2.13 billion in less than a month. This rapid growth comes after Base reached $1 billion in TVL 226 days after its launch in August, with the $2 billion milestone achieved just 25 days later, according to data from L2 Beat.
USD Coin (USDC) is the largest token by natively minted value at $600 million, while Ether (ETH) leads in canonically bridged value at $798 million. Some people in the crypto space believe that memecoins could be a huge driver for Base's adoption, potentially carving out a niche that has been dominated by Solana. This comes as the Solana network finds itself in the middle of a memecoin boom that has generated wealth overnight for many, but now the focus seems to be shifting more towards Base.
According to Dami-Defi, Base could become the new hub for memecoin activity. This sentiment is echoed by the performance of memecoins like Degen (DEGEN) and Base God (TYBG) on Base, which, despite their impressive market caps, still trail behind the likes of Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
Solana's memecoin frenzy, however, was led by Dogwifhat (WIF), achieving a $2.7 billion market cap since its debut. Other coins like Book of Memes (BOME) and Slerf (SLERF) have mirrored this success. Meanwhile, Base has seen speculation around memecoins like Normie (NORMIE), Briun Armstrung (BRIUN), and Brett (BRETT), among others.
The enthusiasm for Base could also be attributed to Coinbase, the network's creator firm, developing a native smart contract wallet. This could simplify trading on Base for Coinbase's 100 million registered users by eliminating the need for seed phrases or private keys. Industry voices, like Andrew Forte of Dappd and the Wizard of SoHo on X, firmly believe in Base's potential to host billion-dollar memecoins that could easily list on Coinbase, reaching a broader audience.
Base's momentum was also boosted by a record 2 million transactions in a single day on Mar. 16, after the Dencun upgrade on Ethereum.
RippleX Addresses Technical Glitch
While things are looking up for Base, the same can not be said for other projects. RippleX, the development arm of Ripple, revealed a technical glitch impacting Automated Market Maker (AMM) pools on the XRP Ledger, affecting transactions and the functioning of certain pools.
The issue was shared with people in a post on X, where RippleX's technical team outlined a discrepancy in some AMM pools that resulted in transactions being incorrectly processed. AMM pools are essential components of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), enabling trading by allowing users to swap assets directly with a pool rather than through traditional order books. These pools hold reserves of different assets, with prices determined by the assets' ratio in the pool.
In response to the ongoing issue, RippleX decided to advise users against depositing funds into the impacted AMM pools to avoid potential complications. Those holding liquidity provider (LP) tokens in the affected pools have been urged to redeem them until the issue is resolved. RippleX's technical team is actively working on the glitch to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. The company has also been engaging with the community to assist in troubleshooting the problem.
This technical problem has been met with a mostly positive reaction from the crypto community, with many appreciating RippleX's transparency and proactive measures.
Polygon zkEVM Faces Downtime
Meanwhile, Polygon, the blockchain scalability platform, is also currently addressing an issue with its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) that has led to downtime. The problem, which originated from a complication with the blockchain sequencer, has stopped operations on the zkEVM, a key layer-2 scaling solution.
This sequencer is crucial as it organizes and batches transactions before forwarding them to the zkEVM smart contract on Ethereum's main network. Despite the disruption, Polygon reassured its extensive follower base on X, and stated that the issue is isolated to the zkEVM and does not affect its Proof of Stake (PoS) network, the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK), or any chain developed using the CDK.
The incident has naturally led to discussions among the crypto community on X, with some people expressing surprise over the lack of conversation about the network's extended downtime. The situation has drawn comparisons to a recent outage by the Solana network, which saw a halt in block production for over five hours. Solana's challenges with network stability have been ongoing, with multiple outages since January of 2022.
Polygon launched the zkEVM to its mainnet beta in March 2023 to enhance smart contract deployment capabilities by offering increased finality and reduced costs. The zkEVM is designed to mimic Ethereum's mainnet transaction environment, promoting scalability for decentralized applications through efficient transaction batching.
