Base surpasses 2 million active addresses with cbBTC launch

The Base network, a layer-2 solution built on Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) by Coinbase, has seen its daily active addresses rise above 2 million.

This sharp increase has been attributed to two major developments: the release of Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (CRYPTO:CBBTC) and the introduction of the Base Name Service (BNS), according to on-chain analytics from IntoTheBlock.

Coinbase rolled out cbBTC on both Base and Ethereum on September 12, offering users a wrapped Bitcoin token backed 1:1 by BTC (CRYPTO:BTC), allowing them to interact with various decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

Since its launch, cbBTC has drawn more than 3,500 users, with an estimated $472 million in daily Bitcoin transactions processed on Base.

However, the introduction of Base’s own name registration service, BNS, has had a greater impact on the surge in active addresses.

Launched on August 21, BNS enables users to register readable names for their blockchain addresses, similar to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

Within just a few days of BNS's debut, Base’s active addresses exceeded 1 million, and after a month, this number climbed to over 2 million.

Data from GrowThePie, a platform tracking Ethereum layer-2 networks, shows that Base now holds 70% of the active address market share in comparison to Arbitrum’s 9.6%.

In the last week alone, Base logged 6.8 million active addresses, while Arbitrum saw fewer than 943,000.

Despite this impressive growth, cbBTC has drawn some criticism, particularly over concerns about Coinbase’s transparency around Bitcoin reserves and limitations in the token’s user agreement that might affect compensation for lost assets.

At the time of reporting, the Coinbase Wrapped BTC price was $63,349.81.