Why Did the Base Network Go Down Today? Outage Disrupts Transactions
Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, just experienced its first outage since launching in 2023. The brief disruption halted block production and temporarily paused all transactions, impacting decentralized apps and users.
What went wrong, and how did it bounce back? Here’s the story.
Base Network Temporarily Stalls
On August 5, 2025, at 06:15 UTC, the Base team confirmed that its mainnet had stalled. This affected deposits, withdrawals, block production, and Flashblocks. Blockchain explorers BaseScan and OKLink had flagged the issue earlier, noting that block production had stopped at block height 33,792,704.
Although no immediate reason was given, the Base team resolved the issue within 30 minutes. Operations were restored, and the network is now under active monitoring to ensure stability.
Although the outage was brief, it served as a reminder of the importance of uptime, particularly for DeFi users who rely on fast, uninterrupted access. Even such short disruptions can shake user trust, impact liquidity, and stall activity.
basescan faced a 20 min block production halt on $base and it is the first major outage since launch
— VJ 🔺 (@VJweb3) August 5, 2025
it is sharp reminder that decentralization still matters
but frens… does anyone know a lightning fast chain that has never gone down ? pic.twitter.com/N9eOsA0WZn
Base Overtakes Solana in Token Launches
The Base mainnet has recently seen a spike in activity. Base overtook Solana in daily token launches on July 24 and has held the lead since, according to Dune Analytics. On July 27, Base recorded over 54,000 new tokens, more than twice Solana’s 25,460.
This spike is largely driven by the rebranded Base App, which now features Zora and Farcaster. On August 2 alone, Zora accounted for 64.6% of all new tokens across both networks, with 39,778 launched in a single day.
The new Base App combines social media with token creation, allowing users to mint tokens straight from their posts. This feature has sparked significant interest in the ZORA token, which operates on the Base network.
Base is now preparing for a series of technical upgrades aimed at making the network faster, cheaper, and more decentralized.
Key goals include cutting confirmation times to just 200 milliseconds, keeping fees below $0.01, and scaling to over 200 transactions per second, eventually targeting 1 million TPS.
we will make @base:
— jesse.base.eth (@jessepollak) May 24, 2025
fastest – 200ms, lower 🔜
cheapest – <$0.01, lower 🔜
highest throughout – 200 TPS, higher 🔜
neutral – L1 CR, no sandwich, +builders 🔜
decentralized – stage 1 and 2 🔜
people will make noise and we will keep delivering for users and builders.
The network also plans to expand gas throughput from 25 million to 250 million gas per second by year-end and shift core protocol logic to Ethereum Layer 1, allowing broader participation in network governance.
With these upgrades and growing momentum, Base is positioning itself as a top-tier rival to Solana and Sui. The downtime is unlikely to affect its market status for now!