Bessie Liu

Base, Coinbase&#8217;s layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution, did not acquire as many users as other chains did in 2023.



A recent report by Web3 analytics firm Flipside Crypto shows that in 2023, Base acquired a little under two million users.



When compared to layer-1 blockchains including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana and Avalanche, which respectively saw 15.4 million, 10.7 million, 5.6 million and 2.5 million new users, Base’s adoption remains on the lower end.&nbsp;



This is similarly the case when compared to layer-2 chains, including Optimism, Arbitrum and Polygon, which saw 3.3 million, 7.3 million and 15.2 million acquired users in 2023, respectively.&nbsp;



Despite the low adoption rate, Carlos Mercado, a data scientist at Flipside Crypto, told Blockworks that it was important to remember that BASE is barely six months old.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-l2-base-mainnet">Coinbase layer-2 network Base now live on Ethereum mainnet</a>



Having only launched in August last year, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/base">Base</a>, a product of Coinbase, launched with widespread excitement and played an important role in validating the OP Superchain thesis.&nbsp;



“<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/coinbase">Coinbase</a> started strong with both its on-chain summer initiative and identifying how to make USDC free to transfer via signatures on the Base <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2-2">layer-2</a>. Not to mention the frenzy of friend.tech and the BALD meme token,” Mercado said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/friendtech-downturn-socialfi">Friend.tech sees record outflows as top user jumps ship</a>



This excitement quickly tapered off, in contrast to the rest of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the report noted. It is suggested that regulatory oversight over centralized exchanges may have negatively impacted the Base, even though Coinbase itself was not implicated.



Mercado adds that an additional two major speed humps could also have played a role in its sluggish growth near the end of 2023.



Firstly, DeFi on Base remains in its early days. According to DeFiLlama, the chain currently has a total value locked (<a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Base">TVL</a>) of under $450 million, a significant difference from <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a>, for example, which currently has a <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Arbitrum">TVL</a> of over $3.5 billion.



“Arbitrum’s lead on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dexs">DEXs</a> and perpetuals has been difficult for even major layer-1’s to surmounts,” Mercado said.



Additionally, Mercado points out that there has been a resurgence of similarly low-cost layer-1 solutions, particularly the likes of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a>.&nbsp;



This resurgence may have been more attractive to users interested in exploring the space, as it was likely that these networks already had an existing, robust ecosystem.&nbsp;



Despite these challenges, Mercado believes that Base still has the potential to substantially grow in 2024.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/base">Coinbase wants to support ‘responsible DeFi development’ through Base</a>



“Being an OP-based chain, it had a headstart on NFT cultural growth — it actually beat ARB and OP and Avalanche in the number of NFT sales transactions in August, September, October and December,” Mercado said. “While their numbers declined month to month, we’re watching this sector as the market shifts.”



He notes that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-pessimism-base-security">additional integrations with Optimism</a>, including through shared sequencing and seamless bridging, will likely continue to ramp Base activity in the coming year.



Updated Jan. 25, 2024 at 2:30 pm ET: Updated headline.



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Base closed in on 2 million users in 2023: Report

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_6308df8376f7a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Digital assets prime broker hires Wells Fargo’s former electronic trading sales head</li>
 <li>Crypto venture capital firm adds high-profile advisors</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cowen Digital expanded its institutional sales team with pros joining from Blockchain.com and Coinbase.&nbsp;



The digital asset division of financial services firm Cowen brought aboard <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-rose-a28a2142/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jackie Rose</a> as director of institutional sales, it revealed Thursday. Rose was previously Blockchain.com’s head of institutional business development and also formerly worked at The Carlyle Group and JPMorgan as an associate and investment banking analyst, respectively. 



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasecampbell24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chase Campbell</a> is now Cowen Digital’s vice president of digital asset sales. Formerly an institutional sales associate at Coinbase, he supported traditional finance and crypto-native firms looking to trade and custody digital assets. 



TD Bank revealed earlier this month that it is <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/td-bank-buys-cowen-in-tradfi-push-with-crypto-twist/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">set to acquire Cowen for $1.3 billion</a>, though details about how it could seek to leverage Cowen’s digital assets unit remain unclear. 



Eric Rose, Cowen’s head of execution, said in a statement that Cowen Digital plans to continue expanding its team as part of its strategic build over the next five years.



Electric Capital added former SEC chairman Jay Clayton, ex-Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratitirc/">Pratiti Raychoudhury</a>, Meta’s head of research, as advisors.



The <a href="https://www.electriccapital.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">venture capital firm</a> recently announced $1 billion in capital to invest in early-stage Web3 companies and protocols with investment sizes ranging from $1m to $50m. 



“By bringing together experts in product design, the global financial system and regulation, Electric Capital founders are able to accelerate innovation and the adoption of Web3 tools,” the company said in a statement.



A former member of the institutional business development team at now-bankrupt Celsius Network is now head of lending solutions at Digital Prime Technologies.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-campbell-4124859/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Courtney Campbell</a> is set to lead the development of the company’s institutional lending solution initiative to be announced later this year, Digital Prime Technologies CEO James Runnels said in a statement. 



Before Celsius, she was a managing director for Credit Suisse’s prime services group. Prior to that, she was the Americas head of international securities lending and synthetics at Bank of America, where she worked for more than a decade.&nbsp;



Identity provider Okta added <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliechoi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Emilie Choi</a>, president and chief operating officer of Coinbase Global, to its board of directors.



Choi has worked at Coinbase since 2018 and has also served as a member of the board of directors for ZipRecruiter and others. Before Coinbase, she was LinkedIn Corporation’s head of corporate development from 2009 to 2018.



“It’s clear that identity is at the heart of every industry and every digital interaction,” Choi said. “I look forward to working with Okta as the company executes on its mission of freeing anyone to safely use any technology and creating a world where your identity belongs to you.”



Blockchain analytics company Flipside Crypto hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daphnekwon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Daphne Kwon</a> to lead its DAO initiatives.



Kwon joins Flipside Crypto from media conglomerate Meredith Corporation, where she was chief strategy officer. She has also worked as president and chief operating officer of Betaworks Studios, and has held chief financial officer and business development roles at brands such as Disney and Oxygen Media.&nbsp;



&#8220;We&#8217;ll see the emergence of new business models with truly decentralized governance and investment structures that release the power of community passion and expertise — many of which promise to tackle some of the biggest opportunities in global finance, creator economies, healthcare and environmental issues,” Kwon said in a statement.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In case you missed it</h3>



Digital assets prime brokerage <a href="https://www.floating.group/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Floating Point Group</a> nabbed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-eliades-38a8978/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peter Eliades</a> — who last headed electronic trading sales for Wells Fargo — to oversee business development in the US and throughout Asia Pacific, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-prime-brokerage-enlists-former-wells-fargo-jpmorgan-exec/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks reported</a> Wednesday. 



Eliades was a vice president at Lehman Brothers in 2001 before becoming a managing director at Bear Stearns &amp; Co. about four years later. He went on to work for JPMorgan as head of Americas trading.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/new-web3-head-at-digital-bank-cogni-braces-for-more-regulation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Digital bank Cogni recently brought aboard</a> former registered commodity trading advisor <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simongrunfeld/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simon Grunfeld</a> to lead its Web3 initiatives. 



The executive has previously worked for blockchain-as-a-service platform SIMBA Chain, as well as for digital collectibles marketplace VeVe. He also founded white-label platform Ibinex to help enterprises develop crypto exchanges.



Alameda Research co-CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-trabucco-79215263/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam Trabucco</a> revealed Wednesday <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/top-alameda-exec-steps-down/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he is stepping down</a> from his role at the crypto quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider. He has not yet decided on a new destination, he said in a series of tweets. 



Caroline Ellison is now sole CEO of the company, an Alameda spokesperson told Blockworks.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



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