Base pulls in $4.7 billion in net inflows since January 1
Coinbase's Layer 2 network is drawing capital as DeFi activity, stablecoins and tokenized stocks pile onto the chain
Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network built by Coinbase, has taken in $4.7 billion in net inflows since January 1. That is the amount of money arriving on the chain after subtracting what left.
The inflows coincide with Base’s DeFi activity hitting record levels in 2026. Lending protocols, stablecoins and tokenized stocks are all drawing more users onto the network.
Where the money is going
Base’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) hit an all-time high of approximately $6.2 billion on September 22, 2026. TVL is the total value of assets deposited in a network’s apps, such as lending pools and trading venues.
As of early October 2026, Base TVL stood at around $6.4 billion, and bridged value on the network reached $8.28 billion.
Bridged value tracks assets moved onto Base from other chains, mostly Ethereum mainnet.
Protocols such as Morpho, which matches borrowers and lenders on-chain, have pulled in a large share of the activity.
The stablecoin market cap on Base sits at approximately $5.2 billion, with USDC accounting for roughly 84% of it.
Coinbase co-founded the Centre consortium behind USDC with Circle, so Base holding mostly Circle’s dollar token is about as surprising as finding Coke products in Atlanta.
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Tokenized stocks join the mix
Coinbase’s tokenized stocks reached $71 million in daily trading volume as of October 2026.
Tokenized stocks are blockchain versions of traditional shares. They can trade around the clock and settle on-chain, and they can sit in the same wallet as a user’s stablecoins and DeFi positions.
Base ranks among the top Layer 2 networks for transaction throughput and liquidity in 2026 snapshots.
Reading the flow data carefully
A separate dataset on Base’s bridge activity shows cumulative inflows of about $19.5 billion against outflows of about $18.4 billion, for a net of about $1.1 billion.
That figure sits well below the $4.7 billion year-to-date number. The gap suggests the trackers measure different things, such as particular bridges, specific time windows, or how native asset issuance is counted.
The research data also shows TVL growing faster than stablecoin inflows. That suggests part of the TVL growth comes from assets already on the network rising in price, not only from new deposits.
Background: Coinbase’s bet on its own chain
Base is an Ethereum Layer 2, meaning it processes transactions off Ethereum’s main chain and then posts the results back to Ethereum. The model keeps Ethereum’s security while cutting costs and raising speed.
Coinbase built Base to bring on-chain activity closer to its own user base.
What this means
Concentration is a risk worth watching. With USDC at roughly 84% of stablecoin supply, Base’s liquidity depends heavily on one issuer, and any disruption to USDC would hit the network harder than a chain with a more varied stablecoin mix.