The Coinbase Layer-2 Base network wants to onboard $100 billion in on-chain assets as part of its 2025 goals. The network revealed this in a Jan. 17 blog post, noting that it aligns with its mission to build a global chain economy.
According to the post, Base, which has already achieved significant successes in less than two years, wants to increase its global presence in 2025.
The network plans to achieve this by hitting goals like onboarding 25 million people, hiring 25,000 developers, and increasing the total transaction amount to one billion by October. The L2 network also intends to improve its scalability by increasing block capacity to 250 million gas units per second (Mgas/s).
With ambitious goals ahead, the Base team has already developed a strategy to achieve their goals. The strategy focuses on five key areas: manufacturers, applications, ownership, markets and decentralization. As part of its strategy to become the preferred platform for builders, Base will now roll out more developer-friendly tools, including OnchainKit enhancements, AI agents, and mini-app development tools.
Additionally, it plans to improve the overall on-chain experience for builders and developers by providing tools that help them earn more, go viral, and generally expand distribution.
The blog post says:
“We will nurture a vibrant ecosystem of connected and open on-chain applications that will increase the number of people using Base. More apps translate into more concrete reasons for each person to go online.
Meanwhile, The Base team is also focusing on decentralizing the network and improving its scalability. Thus, it strives to reduce transaction costs below 1 cent and speed below 1 second while achieving stage 1 decentralization by the end of this year.
Coinbase targets the chain with new products
At the same time, Base’s goals align with Coinbase’s broader goal of providing more on-chain products. The publicly traded exchange has been optimistic about attracting more people to the chain and recently launched Bitcoin-backed lending products, allowing users to borrow USDC through the Coinbase app and use BTC as collateral.
-Products like Base, Smart Wallet, and other DeFi from Coinbase highlight how the exchange has built a large on-chain ecosystem to attract more traditional investments. Perhaps the best explanation for this comes from Smart Wallet team leader Max Branzburg, who noted how the exchange has been repeated over the years and how products are developed to address people’s ability to access on the chain.
He said:
“First, it was too difficult to connect to the chain, so we created the @coinbase app. At the time, networks were too slow and too expensive. So we created @base. At the time, wallets were still too complex, which is why we created the Smart Wallet.
He added that Bitcoin lending is just the first step toward fully on-chain finance, and more Coinbase will make it accessible to millions of people with billions of dollars in assets.
Coinbase comes under fire for arbitrarily blocking user accounts
Despite its on-chain ambitions, the exchange has been criticized by some users for arbitrarily blocking their accounts. Former Coinbase employee Griffin McShane recently called out the exchange on X after his account was temporarily blocked for two months because he was trying to withdraw a deposit.
In Coinbase’s email to Griffin, they claimed this was a measure to ensure the security of his account, as monitoring shows he is sending cryptocurrencies to an exchange or to a fraudulent person. However, McShane noted that he had used the same account for years, including when he worked at Coinbase.
Although the exchange has now resolved the issue, several users claimed they faced the same issue with Coinbase, which left them unable to access their accounts for months. Meanwhile, blockchain detective ZachXBT noted that Coinbase had a major fraud problem that it had failed to solve by blocking legitimate users.
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