Base Activity Hits All-Time High on Airdrop Speculation

Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network Base recently teased a native token for the first time since its launch in 2023, and activity on the chain is soaring as users rush to become eligible for the airdrop.

The network’s total value locked (TVL) reached a new high of $5.1 billion at the beginning of September, and weekly transactions just crossed 90 million for the first time, a 10% increase from the previous high of 81 million at the end of December, driven by the AI Agent mania.

Despite the increase in total transactions, however, the number of active addresses on the network continues to decline, indicating that regular Base users are increasing their activity on the chain, rather than new capital entering the ecosystem.

Speculators on social media are under the impression that creators who have launched protocols or creator coins may stand to benefit the most from a Base airdrop.

Influencer and trader IcoBeast said on X, “The Base airdrop will be massive and still most will miss it because they’re not able to read between the lines and are already just grinding out txns across a bunch of wallets. [In my opinion] Base team/eco has been extremely on the nose about how to qualify/juice allocation,” referring to a number of screenshots from Base builders that reference rewards for builders and creators.

Base founder Jesse Pollak responded to IcoBeast, saying, “one weird trick to benefiting from the new global economy: build, create, trade, and onboard people.”

While Pollak and the Base team continue to push the idea of rewarding creators, DEX volumes on Zora, the creator coin platform, are at their lowest since July, with just $6.26 million in volume between Sept. 15 and Sept. 21, after reaching as high as $54 million in weekly volume during the last month of July.