Share this article

Coinbase Layer 2 Base Overtakes Optimism in Daily Active Users as Friend.Tech Hype Soars

A grayed-out "airdrop" icon at the top of the Friend.Tech app suggests the platform will release a token.

Updated Aug 11, 2023, 2:55 p.m. Published Aug 11, 2023, 12:30 p.m.
Base's daily active users soar (Dune)
Base's daily active users soar (Dune)
  • Base daily active users hits a record high of 136,000.
  • Activity on Base is tied to Friend.Tech, a social network, rumored to be releasing a token airdrop.
  • About $175 million has been bridged to Base since inception.

Frenzied activity around Friend.Tech, a social network platform built on Coinbase's (COIN) layer 2 blockchain Base, has driven daily active users to a record high of 136,000, according to Dune Analytics.

Following a modest public release on Wednesday that saw just $10 million in fresh inflows during its first day as a live blockchain, Base has now overtaken rival layer 2 blockchain Optimism in terms of daily active users and is not that far from Arbitrum's total of 147,000, according to tokenterminal data.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

A total of $175 million in cryptocurrencies has been transferred to Base since its inception, with almost 580,000 transactions recorded on Thursday.

Much of that has been attributed to Friend.Tech, a new social network that allows users to purchase or sell shares tied to popular Twitter figures.

The app is in beta mode and can be accessed only with a valid sign-up code. A grayed-out section at the top of the app suggests the platform will release a token, spurring a flurry of activity as users attempt to farm a potential airdrop by sharing referral codes.

The platform's servers experienced downtime on Thursday following a surge in sign-ups.

Base is an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain that was incubated by Coinbase and built using the Optimism software stack.

Read more: Coinbase Officially Launches Base Blockchain in Milestone for a Public Company

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

Zcash Floats Dynamic Fee Plan to Ensure Users Won’t Be Priced Out

(Christian Dubovan/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

ZEC zoomed 12% amid the fee discussion, beating gains across all major tokens.

What to know:

  • A new proposal by Shielded Labs suggests a dynamic fee market for Zcash to address rising transaction costs and network congestion.
  • The proposed system uses a median fee per action observed over the prior 50 blocks, with a priority lane for high-demand periods.
  • The changes aim to maintain Zcash's privacy features while avoiding complex protocol redesigns.