Base Dominates Ethereum Layer 2 Revenue—Here’s How It’s Outperforming the Competition

Move over, other L2s—Base is eating your lunch. The Coinbase-backed Ethereum scaling solution isn’t just growing; it’s vacuuming up revenue while rivals scramble to keep pace. Here’s the breakdown.

The Fee Machine

Base’s revenue engine runs on two fuels: sheer user adoption and a fee structure that somehow makes ‘high Ethereum costs’ sound like a feature. Transactions? Surging. Developer activity? Through the roof. Meanwhile, competitors are stuck explaining why their ‘superior tech’ hasn’t translated to actual profits.

The Dark Horse Advantage

Unlike anonymous crypto projects that burn through VC cash, Base had a cheat code: instant access to Coinbase’s 110M+ users. Turns out, distribution beats white papers—who knew? Now it’s monetizing that audience while other L2s pray for bull market scraps.

The Cynical Take

Let’s be real—half these ‘competitors’ are just VCs playing with Monopoly money. Base wins because it treats crypto like a business, not a science fair project. Revenue isn’t everything… until you need to pay developers.

Base Captures Majority of L2 Market Share

In its latest analysis, Galaxy Digital explained that Base’s lead is supported by its EIP-1559-inspired fee model, which enables “dynamic” auction-based priority fee collection rather than strict first-come-first-served (FCFS) ordering.

The sequencer prioritizes transactions based on the highest priority fee per unit of gas and allows users to pay premiums for urgent execution. This enables Base to monetize block space demand efficiently.

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, which reduced Layer 1 posting costs via blob-enabled data submission, has further improved Base’s efficiency in monetizing block space while maintaining low transaction fees.

While Arbitrum introduced Timeboost in April 2025 to enable slot-bidding for express execution, it remains a predictive, fixed-rate system that is less reactive than Base’s per-transaction bidding. This makes the former less effective at capturing sudden spikes in user demand.

Over the past six months, priority fees alone have averaged $156,138 per day for Base. The chain accounted for about 86% of its daily revenue. Transactions occupying the top slot of each block contributed 30%-45% of daily revenue year-to-date in 2025, while the top 10 slots have accounted for between 50%-80% of daily revenue over the same period.

Meanwhile, “Flashblocks,” which was implemented on the Layer 2 network on July 16, introduced sub-block confirmations that allow high-priority transactions to land in lower slots while still receiving near-instant execution. This has resulted in a more even distribution of priority fees across block slots without reducing overall fee generation. Such a system in place has helped Base maintain strong revenue capture despite changes in slot allocation.

Base’s Revenue Engine

It is important to note that Base’s dominance in decentralized exchange (DEX) activity has been a major driver of its revenue. The network has consistently captured 50%-65% of Layer 2 DEX volume and holds the highest DEX TVL among Layer 2s, excluding perpetual DEX platforms.

Historically, priority fees tied to DEX swaps contributed 50%-70% of daily fees paid to Base. However, this share has declined to around 34% in recent weeks and reflects increased base fees and growing non-DEX competition for block space across the network. Despite this dip, DEX swaps have been observed to be a primary contributor to Base’s fee generation, especially in time-sensitive trades and maximum extractable value (MEV) strategies.

Data also indicates that a small cohort of users dominates priority fee payments, with 250 addresses accounting for nearly 65% of all priority fees paid over the past year.