Base's profitability has been intricately linked to the meteoric rise of meme coins that captured the imagination of the cryptocurrency market in the early months of 2024. This surge in interest propelled Base to new heights, as investors flocked to capitalize on the meme coin mania, driving up transaction volumes and boosting the network's revenue streams.

In a recent milestone achievement, the Ethereum layer 2 network Base crossed a significant threshold, with its total value locked (TVL) surging past the $8 billion mark. This feat was accomplished mere days after Base surpassed Optimism’s OP Mainnet, solidifying its position as a leading player in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Fresh data from L2Beat reveals that Base’s TVL now stands at an impressive $8.08 billion, comprising a substantial $5.92 billion in natively minted assets and an additional $2.14 billion in canonically bridged value. This bridge mechanism allows assets locked on Ethereum to be seamlessly represented on Base, further enhancing its utility and appeal to users.

Base, nurtured under the auspices of Coinbase, is underpinned by the robust and flexible OP Stack, empowering developers to deploy a wide array of applications with unparalleled reliability, security, and minimal transaction costs. Since its inception in August 2023, Base has charted an extraordinary growth trajectory, reaching the $1 billion TVL milestone on February 27, a mere seven months post-launch. Subsequently, over the ensuing 104 days, the network experienced an exponential eight-fold increase in value locked.

Amidst its surging popularity, Base recently surpassed OP Mainnet, ascending to become the largest chain within the burgeoning Superchain ecosystem. This significant milestone positions Base as the second-largest Ethereum scaler by TVL, trailing only Arbitrum One, which boasts an impressive $18.27 billion in TVL.

Moreover, Base distinguishes itself by leading all Ethereum layer 2 networks in transactions per second (TPS) over the past month, averaging a robust 30.36 TPS, surpassing Arbitrum One’s 23.52 TPS. Over the last 30 days, Base has processed a staggering total of 64.86 million transactions, underscoring its increasing adoption and utility within the Ethereum ecosystem.

In terms of financial performance and challenges, Base has demonstrated resilience and profitability, despite encountering certain hurdles along the way. While the meme coin frenzy of early 2024 bolstered Base’s profitability, it also attracted nefarious actors seeking to exploit the network's popularity. Notably, in March, phishing scammers pilfered a substantial $3.35 million from the network, marking an alarming 1,880% increase from the comparatively meager $169,000 lost to such scams in January.

Nevertheless, the outlook remains promising for Ethereum layer 2 scaling networks like Base. Analysts at asset management firm VanEck envision a future where these networks collectively achieve a staggering $1 trillion market cap by 2030. Their assessment emphasizes critical factors such as transaction pricing, developer and user experiences, trust assumptions, and ecosystem size as key drivers of this growth trajectory.

Meanwhile, amidst the backdrop of Base's ascension, the broader cryptocurrency market appears to be undergoing a phase of consolidation, with Bitcoin trading around the $69,500 mark, further underscoring the maturation and stability of the digital asset landscape.