Data from IntoTheBlock shows that Coinbase’s layer 2 blockchain, Base, which debuted in early August, has experienced an all-time high in daily transactions.
On Thursday, Base processed 1.88 million transactions, outpacing layer 2 competitors Arbitrum and Optimism combined, who processed 780,000 and 370,000 transactions, respectively.
“Interestingly, neither non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces nor decentralised finance (DeFi) applications are responsible for the increase in Base’s activity. Lucas Outumuro, head of research at IntoTheBlock, stated that a substantial amount of usage can be ascribed to a new social programme called FriendTech.
The Base-based decentralised social networking site Friend.tech bills itself as “the marketplace for your friends.” Over the past week, utilisation of the platform has surged, and daily transactions have also increased to an all-time high. IntoTheBlock data shows that 529,000 transactions were made on Friend.tech. According to IntoTheBlock, people who were trying to earn points for an upcoming airdrop were a contributing factor in the spike.
When Friend.tech started in early August, Base also experienced an uptick in activity as its introduction pushed daily active users to a new high. Base also surpassed Ethereum and other competing layer 2 blockchains like Arbitrum and Optimism in August, averaging a record-breaking 15.88 transactions per second. Friends.Tech was mostly to blame for the uptick in activity.
Notably, after experiencing a brief upswing, transactions on Friend.tech sharply decreased, going from a peak of 525,000 in early August to just 51,000 at the end of the month. In the same time frame, Base’s regular business activities also experienced a slowdown.
According to IntoTheBlock, the current increase in Base activity is due to actors in Ethereum’s layer 2 ecosystems being “more specialised in their own niche.” Based on Coinbase’s extensive user base, Base has swiftly emerged as the L2 with the greatest number of unique addresses and transactions, making it a prime prospect for the success of social applications like FriendTech, according to IntoTheBlock.
A clue that the blockchain’s efforts to grow by supporting supplementary “layer-2” networks, like Coinbase’s own Base, are successful, according to some analysts, is that Friend.tech didn’t increase congestion and fees on Ethereum the way previous frenzys had.