Exploring Coinbase’s future amid L2 growth and grants

• Base’s Layer 2 gained traction amid Coinbase’s legal challenges.
• Coinbase’s growth potential mirrored Base’s impressive statistics and positive regulatory developments.

Base, the Layer 2 solution provided by Coinbase [COIN], was observed to be gaining prominence amid legal challenges faced by the exchange. A surge of interest was seen in Coinbase’s Layer 2 in recent days, signaling potential growth opportunities.

L2 growth spurred by friends

A notable catalyst for this surge has been the introduction of friends.tech, an app that allows users to tokenize their social networks. The platform enables users to buy and sell “shares” of individuals, granting ownership that includes access to private chats.

The share price dynamically adjusts based on supply and demand dynamics. Users can collect shares for exclusive privileges, including sending tweets from influencer accounts.

Defying the odds

Momentum was evident in the statistics as well. According to Messari’s data, friend.tech made a remarkable debut on Base, generating $650,000 for users within a week of its beta launch.

With over 250,000 transactions from 23,000 unique users, its user counts surpassed Ethereum’s [ETH] leading NFT platforms combined.

https://t.co/JMVoe2xNY9 on Base has generated $650,000 for users after launching in beta a week ago (users receive a 5% share of their total volume).

With over 250,000 transactions from 23,000 unique users, user counts are higher than Ethereum’s largest NFT platforms combined. pic.twitter.com/RiCIyqtTuX

— Toe (@_ThePinkyToe) August 16, 2023

Base itself made substantial strides since its official launch a week ago. The past week has seen an impressive influx of 261,000 new users and a daily average of 112,000 active users.

The platform facilitated a total value bridged of $240 million, garnered over 100,000 NFT collectors, generated $1.23 million in fees ($64 million ARR), and recorded a $158 million trading volume within the last 24 hours.

Base officially launched one week ago today. What a week it’s been.

•261k new users
•112k daily active users on average
•$240m total value bridged
•100k+ NFT collectors
•$1.23m in fees ($64m ARR)
•$158m in volume last 24 hrs

via @tokenterminal @DuneAnalytics @ourZORA https://t.co/H4mmdSNP9w pic.twitter.com/gLFN8B5hDn

— Erik Smith, CFP® (@eriksmithcfp) August 16, 2023

Meanwhile, Coinbase, despite past legal woes, found a silver lining in terms of regulatory developments. The National Futures Association, as a designated self-regulatory organization (SRO) by the CFTC, granted approval to Coinbase Financial Markets.

This approval allows Coinbase to operate as a registered Futures Commission Merchant, enabling the exchange to offer futures contracts in BTC and ETH to eligible US customers.

The National Futures Association, a CFTC designated SRO, has approved Coinbase Financial Markets. as a registered Futures Commission Merchant .

Coinbase can now offer futures contracts in BTC and ETH to eligible customers in the US.👇

— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) August 16, 2023

At press time, COIN was trading at $0.0006467 as per CoinMarketCap, registering a 4.52% drop in 24 hours.