Coinbase Shakes Up DeFi: Wrapped cbADA and cbLTC Hit Base Network – Cardano and Litecoin Go Cross-Chain

Coinbase just dropped a crypto bridge bomb. The exchange’s Base network now supports wrapped versions of Cardano (cbADA) and Litecoin (cbLTC) – letting traders bypass the usual multi-chain gymnastics.

Why it matters: This isn’t just another token launch. It’s a strategic play to absorb liquidity from competing chains into Coinbase’s growing DeFi ecosystem. Suddenly that 'open finance' utopia looks a lot more... corporate.

Behind the tech: Wrapped tokens act as cross-chain proxies, locking the original asset on its native blockchain while minting a parallel version on another network. Think of it as crypto’s version of currency exchange – minus the airport kiosk robbery rates.

The cynical take: Another day, another wrapped asset for traders to speculate on while actual adoption plays catch-up. At least this time it’s not another meme coin.

Coinbase earns plaudits for its approach to L2

Meanwhile, the recent launch has attracted the praise of many in the crypto community, particularly for Base’s open approach to enabling other assets to take part in its decentralized finance ecosystem.

Unlike most L2 networks, including the newer Ink network from Kraken, Base does not have a native token. Instead, the platform has focused on bringing as many people on-chain as possible, and wrapping assets is part of the many initiatives the exchange has implemented to make this happen.

As Base creator Jesse Pollack said, “Base is for everyone.”

So far, that approach has paid off for the network, which now dominates the transaction count on the Ethereum ecosystem while also attracting significant liquidity. According to Growthepie, Base has seen 13.17 million unique addresses in the last seven days, far above Ethereum mainnet with 2.13 million and Arbitrum with 1.2 million.

With the massive number of users, it also leads in transaction count with 7.91 million transactions today alone, while coming second in total value secured with $12.39 billion. Unsurprisingly, Base is also one of the most profitable L2 networks with over $5 million in revenue in the last 30 days.

Interestingly, this might be the beginning for Base, given the massive interest among builders looking to deploy on the network. Base’s Demo Day recently saw over 900 projects pitched from all over the world, with eleven out of the top 77 pitching teams coming from Africa.

Analysts bullish on Coinbase’s importance in the crypto ecosystem

With the success of Base Network and other Coinbase products, the exchange looks poised to dominate the crypto ecosystem. This is the opinion of Bernstein analysts, who recently increased their price target for the exchange stock COIN to $510 from the previous $310.

According to the analysts, Coinbase has maintained its market share even in the face of competition and will likely continue to do so even if TradFi brokerage firms get involved in crypto trading. They particularly mentioned how Coibase connects crypto’s retail, institutional, and on-chain infrastructure, noting that no other exchanges have been able to do so at such a scale.

Meanwhile, Coinbase continues to expand and recently secured a Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) license in Luxembourg, allowing it to operate in all 27 European Union countries. Unsurprisingly, COIN has been a top performer in recent days, with over a 38.47% rise in just five days.

The stock is trading at $351, adding more than 40% in value year-to-date.

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