Coinbase has announced plans to increase the storage of corporate and customer USDC balances on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution incubated by the exchange and built on the open-source OP Stack.
The move is expected to provide benefits such as lower fees, faster settlement times, and enhanced security for managing customer funds.
Max Branzburg, Coinbase’s Vice President and Head of Consumer Products, announced the decision in a Wednesday post on X.
“This enables us to manage and secure customer funds with lower fees and faster settlement times, with no impact to the Coinbase user experience,” he said.
He further encouraged other companies to follow Coinbase’s lead in moving their business onchain.
Community Supports Move to Increase USDC Reserves on Base
The announcement has been met with positive reception, with Jesse Pollak, a contributor to Base, expressing support and excitement for Coinbase’s transition.
Pollak described the move as “based” and pledged continued support for Coinbase in their onchain endeavors.
based
excited to keep supporting @coinbase moving onchain
— Jesse Pollak (jesse.xyz) 🛡️ (@jessepollak) March 26, 2024
Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 solution, has experienced a remarkable surge in total value locked (TVL).
According to data from Defi Llama, user deposits on Base have surpassed $1 billion.
This represents a significant increase, as the TVL has more than doubled since the beginning of the month when it recorded $470 million onchain.
The surge in Base’s TVL can be attributed to decentralized exchange Aerodrome, which has contributed the majority of the locked value since its significant growth starting in early February.
Transaction counts on Base have witnessed a notable increase, surpassing other optimistic rollups in terms of growth.
Although Arbitrum has also experienced a surge in transaction counts, OP Mainnet has seen a more modest increase in its daily transaction count.
USDC on Tron Coming to End
Coinbase’s decision to ramp up USDC reserves on Base comes as Boston-based crypto firm Circle has announced plans to halt the creation of USDC tokens on the Tron blockchain.
Circle cited the need to ensure the transparency, trustworthiness, and safety of USDC as the reason behind their move.
“Our decision to discontinue support for USDC on TRON is the result of an enterprise-wide approach that involved the business organization, compliance and other functions across our company,” the company said on X.
More recently, Binance has also revealed that it will no longer facilitate deposits and withdrawals of the USDC using the Tron blockchain network.
Binance clarified that users would still be able to trade USDC on their platform.
Additionally, deposits and withdrawals of USDC through other supported networks would remain unaffected.
With a circulation of approximately $32.1 billion, USDC currently stands as the eighth-largest cryptocurrency and the second-largest stablecoin after Tether.
Most USDC tokens in circulation are based on the Ethereum blockchain, according to Circle’s website.