Base Secures Position Among Top Ethereum Layer-2s In May First Week

Base network has been firmly in the top of the list of Ethereum layer-2 networks and it continues to solidify its lead in the segment. In our previous exploration of the top DEXes, we discovered that most of the L2 volumes were flowing through the Base network.

But just how big is the lead that Base have over its peers? According to Coingecko, it controlled 36% of the $9.69 billion in total value locked. Roughly $3.708 billion worth of trading volume in the last 24 hours.

Base accounted for $.581 billion in daily volume and $3.49 billion in total value locked. It was ahead of Arbitrum One, the runner-up by $551.3 million in volume and over $1 billion in TVL.

The impressive lead could potentially expand as Base plans to take advantage of the latest Pectra upgrade on Ethereum.

Base DEX Activity Makes Swift Recovery as Market Confidence Improves

DEX volume has been recovering aggressively so far this month. For context. Its lowest DEX figure in the last 2 weeks was $446.93 million on 3 May. That figure surged as high as $1.27 billion on 9 May and was the highest observed in the last 6 weeks among Ethereum’s layer-2s.

The growth in DEX revenue was even more impressive considering it previously dropped below $100 million on 1 April. It has thus grown over 10-fold in its recovery.

Still on activity on the Base network, TVL registered a parabolic move in during the week. The TVL surged to $3.592 billion on 9 May, after rallying by more than 14% compared to levels observed 24 hours prior.

Base TVL was on track to add $1 billion from its lowest level observed in April. This recovery was enough confirmation of growing confidence in the network.

The confidence was underpinned by healthy address activity, with an average of more than 1 million returning users per day in the last 3 days. This was noteworthy because the number of returning users bottomed out at 417,880 addresses just over 3 weeks ago.

How Market Recovery has Been Influencing Ethereum Layer-2 Network, Base

The growing number of returning users goes hand in hand with activity in terms of transactions. Daily transaction count on Base recovered back above 10 million transactions on Thursday and Friday.

The last time that daily transactions surged past 10 million TXs was on 25 January. This means network activity on the Ethereum layer-2 network was recovering to levels last seen at its peak in January.

These data points confirm that Base has been able to capture a substantial amount of liquidity flows in the crypto market since it entered recovery mode.

As a consequence, chain fees on the network were up by as much as 7 times in the last few days. For context, chain fees were as low as $58,830 on 4 May but they jumped to $307,000 on Friday, 9 May. Meanwhile, stablecoin liquidity has been holding steady above $4 billion.

Note that the network fees were closer to the Solana network’s chain-fees highlighting just how much value the network has managed to capture.  It was also a significant chunk of the Ethereum mainnet chain fees which amounted to over $2.3 million.

Base network’s chain fees were relatively low perhaps because it prioritizes low fees which is one of the main reasons why the network has been attractive. Low fees, strong developer support and robust scalability have all contributed a great deal to Base’s current dominant position as the king of the Ethereum layer 2 networks.

There is no doubt that Base holds a solid lead against its layer 2 peers. But can Base maintain its strong lead through the rest of 2025 considering the highly competitive nature of the segment?

The post Base Secures Position Among Top Ethereum Layer-2s In May First Week appeared first on The Coin Republic.