Top 10 Popular dApps and Tokens on Base to Watch in 2024
There’s been some buzz around Base since its launch in August 2023. The blockchain, developed by the crypto exchange Coinbase, is now among the top 10 largest by Total Value Locked (TVL) across different dApps.
In this article, we’ll cover what the Base blockchain is, its state in 2024, and the top trending dApps on the network.
Coinbase, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced the testnet launch of Base at the end of February 2023. The Layer 2 is designed to power on-chain products developed by Coinbase and allow developers to build applications on top of the platform.
Looking back on the testnet news, we wrote that Base aims to compete with other chains.
And we’ve got to say the competition has been hot.
You can learn more about Layer 2s in one of our previous articles: “What is Layer 2 on Blockchain.”
Base is Ethereum-compatible and supports all the developer tools that Ethereum does. Builders familiar with Solidity won’t have difficulty coding on Base, while users can easily send transactions between the two chains.
Among the interesting things about Base is that the blockchain doesn’t have its native token and uses ETH for payments.
Note: There’s a BASE token in the market, but it doesn’t have any connection with the Base blockchain and Coinbase. BASE is the native token of the Base Protocol, with a price pegged to the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies.
Base comes after Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Chain while getting ahead of Polygon, Avalanche, and Sui.
We’ll break down some of the leading platforms built on the Base blockchain in the following sections.
1. Aerodrome: Central Liquidity Marketplace for the Base Ecosystem
Aerodrome inherits its core features from Velodrome V2, an AMM for the Optimism chain. AERO token holders can vote on platform decisions by locking their tokens and receive veAERO tokens, in the form of NFTs, in return.
Monthly trading volume on Aerodrome is above $14.7 billion, with a daily record high of $926 million reached on October 25, 2024. Most of the platform’s trading activity comes from Slipstream concentrated liquidity pools focused on low-volatility, high-volume crypto pairs, along with user rewards.
2. Degen: Layer 3 Chain Focused on Memecoins
At the end of March, the Degen chain was launched for fun applications and memecoins. DEGEN is used in the network for payments, rewards, grants, and other purposes. In October 2024, Coinbase Coinbase listed DEGEN, making it the fourth Base protocol available on the exchange, together with SEAM, AERO, and WELL.
3. Seamless Protocol: Base-Native Decentralized Lending and Borrowing
Seamless offers users automated DeFi growth strategies through Integrated Liquidity Markets (ILMs). These vault strategies allow liquidity suppliers to deposit assets into smart contracts that automatically adjust positions based on price updates to manage risks. With automated compounding and rebalancing, the platform aims to enhance the user experience and make it easy for beginners to participate in DeFi.
4. Base Name Service (BNS): Decentralized Naming System for Human-Readable Base Addresses
Names ending with .base went live on August 21, 2024, through the Base Name Service. They allow users to establish their digital identities within the Base ecosystem, make transactions with easily readable names, and connect to different apps. BNS relies on the same technologies powering ENS names deployed on the Base blockchain.
To receive a BNS name, users need to check its availability on base.org and pay annual registration fees based on the name’s length. Shorter names cost more; for example, the price for a name with 10 or more characters is 0.0001 ETH around $0.26 while a 3-character name costs 0.1 ETH - around $265 at current rates.
5. Friend.tech: Social Network That Went Viral in 2023
On Friend.tech, users can create and sell tokenized shares, known as "keys," linked to their social media accounts, allowing buyers access to private chat rooms and token airdrops. The platform’s native token, FRIEND, is used for community activities.
Within 10 days of its launch, Friend.tech attracted over 72,000 users, with its TVL exceeding $7 million.
Statistics show that Friend.tech’s user activity has declined in recent months. However, the platform remains popular in 2024, with a TVL of over $3.2 million, according to DefiLlama. In May 2024, Friend.tech announced the launch of V2 and migration from Base to Ethereum but later reversed these plans.
6. Virtuals Protocol: Platform to Create Onchain AI Personas
Each AI agent has its own token, which can be used to reward users for the revenue generated by the agent's activities. AI tokens are launched through Initial Agent Offerings (IAOs), allowing buyers to become co-owners of the asset. To purchase any agent token, users must pay with the platform’s native token, VIRTUAL.
The platform launched on the mainnet in March 2024. Among the most popular AI agents on Virtuals is Luna with over 500,000 followers on TikTok. Luna live streams non-stop and engages in conversations with fans.
7. Alien Base: Decentralized Exchange for Tokens and Memecoins
Epsilon, the swapping system for Alien Base, allows users to compare different trading quotes and choose the best option for them. The platform’s features include yield farming, stablecoin pools called StableSwap, and Single Staking, which enables users to lock up a single type of cryptocurrency and earn rewards.
Alien Base was launched in August 2023, with its native ALB token used for governance, rewards, and payments. Token holders can make proposals to the Alien Base DAO if they hold at least 100,000 ALB.
8. Heroes of Mavia: Clash of Clans-Like Game in Web3
Besides MAVIA, the game has two other tokens: Ruby and Sapphire. With Ruby, players can trade NFTs with other players and create NFTs on the Ruby NFT marketplace. Meanwhile, Sapphire serves as a premium in-game currency used to purchase resources like speed, shields, gold, and oil.
9. Avantis: DEX for Trading Crypto, Forex, and Commodities
Avantis supports cross-asset leverage, allowing users to long or short synthetic cryptocurrencies, commodities, forex, and metals. The allowed leverage on crypto is 50x, while for forex and commodities, it’s 100x.
Traders need to provide collateral in the USDC stablecoin, and liquidity providers earn yield from trading activities. Avantis offers users risk management tools, such as loss protection and positive slippage for better market prices.
Avantis was launched on the mainnet in February 2024. Currently, the total traded volume on the platform is over $1.4 billion, with around 380,000 trades, based on the official website.
10. Extra Finance: Yield Farming Protocol on Optimism and Base
ExtraFi was launched on Base in September 2023 and has grown into one of the leading DeFi platforms on the chain. The protocol has its native token, EXTRA, which is used for staking, governance, and rewards.
Quick Overview of the Base Blockchain in 2024
Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain. This means it operates on top of Ethereum to improve scalability and reduce transaction costs.
Coinbase, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced the testnet launch of Base at the end of February 2023. The Layer 2 is designed to power on-chain products developed by Coinbase and allow developers to build applications on top of the platform.
Looking back on the testnet news, we wrote that Base aims to compete with other chains.
And we’ve got to say the competition has been hot.
The Total Value Locked on Base is Over $2.6 billion. Source: defillama.com
Currently, Base is the fastest among Ethereum L2s, with the capability to process around 80 transactions per second, according to data from L2Beat.
You can learn more about Layer 2s in one of our previous articles: “What is Layer 2 on Blockchain.”
Base is Ethereum-compatible and supports all the developer tools that Ethereum does. Builders familiar with Solidity won’t have difficulty coding on Base, while users can easily send transactions between the two chains.
Among the interesting things about Base is that the blockchain doesn’t have its native token and uses ETH for payments.
Note: There’s a BASE token in the market, but it doesn’t have any connection with the Base blockchain and Coinbase. BASE is the native token of the Base Protocol, with a price pegged to the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies.
The State of Base in the Final Quarter of 2024
As we enter November 2024, Base is among the largest blockchain platforms, with a TVL (Total Value Locked) of over $2.6 billion, which places it on the list of the largest 10 blockchains by this metric.
Base comes after Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Chain while getting ahead of Polygon, Avalanche, and Sui.
Chains ranked by TVL. Source: defillama.com
Apart from the TVL, Base is among the top platforms by the number of daily active users. Recent data from Token Terminal shows that Base has around 1.1 million daily active users.
Leading dApps Built on the Base Blockchain
Base supports different types of tokens and applications, including DeFi protocols, memecoins, SocialFi apps, AI tokens, and more. In total, 373 apps operate on the blockchain, including native apps (built on the Base blockchain) and non-native apps (developed on other platforms but deployed on Base).
For example, the Uniswap decentralized exchange relies on Unichain, its own blockchain network, but also runs on Base, Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and other chains to offer users more flexibility.
We’ll break down some of the leading platforms built on the Base blockchain in the following sections.
1. Aerodrome: Central Liquidity Marketplace for the Base Ecosystem
The homepage of Aerodrome’s website. Source: aerodrome.finance
Aerodrome Finance is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) with its native AERO token. The platform was launched in August 2023 to serve as the central trading and liquidity marketplace for the Base ecosystem. Aerodrome offers low slippage rates, meaning the price requested by a trader and the actual price are close. On the platform, users can access and trade different assets powered by Base.
Aerodrome inherits its core features from Velodrome V2, an AMM for the Optimism chain. AERO token holders can vote on platform decisions by locking their tokens and receive veAERO tokens, in the form of NFTs, in return.
Monthly trading volume on Aerodrome is above $14.7 billion, with a daily record high of $926 million reached on October 25, 2024. Most of the platform’s trading activity comes from Slipstream concentrated liquidity pools focused on low-volatility, high-volume crypto pairs, along with user rewards.
2. Degen: Layer 3 Chain Focused on Memecoins
Degen was born from meme culture. Source: @degentokenbase on X
Degen is a Layer 3 blockchain, providing an application layer built around the DEGEN token. DEGEN is a memecoin launched in January 2024. Initially, it served as a community token for Farcaster, a decentralized protocol enabling the development of social media apps. After the launch, DEGEN attracted strong community interest, and developers began using it as a native token to build new apps.
At the end of March, the Degen chain was launched for fun applications and memecoins. DEGEN is used in the network for payments, rewards, grants, and other purposes. In October 2024, Coinbase Coinbase listed DEGEN, making it the fourth Base protocol available on the exchange, together with SEAM, AERO, and WELL.
3. Seamless Protocol: Base-Native Decentralized Lending and Borrowing
The home page of Seamless Protocol’s website. Source: seamlessprotocol.com
Seamless is a community-governed crypto lending and borrowing platform with its native SEAM token launched on December 11, 2023. SEAM token holders can propose and vote on protocol decisions while earning additional SEAM for supplying and borrowing tokens.
Seamless offers users automated DeFi growth strategies through Integrated Liquidity Markets (ILMs). These vault strategies allow liquidity suppliers to deposit assets into smart contracts that automatically adjust positions based on price updates to manage risks. With automated compounding and rebalancing, the platform aims to enhance the user experience and make it easy for beginners to participate in DeFi.
Borrowers can access undercollateralized loans, while liquidity suppliers can earn passive rewards by supplying tokens.
4. Base Name Service (BNS): Decentralized Naming System for Human-Readable Base Addresses
The homepage of BNS’s website. Source: base.org
Web3 naming services simplify the way identities are represented onchain by replacing long strings of wallet addresses with human-readable names. You may have seen such names on X (formerly Twitter). For example, Vitalik Buterin’s username, vitalik.eth, is provided by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
Names ending with .base went live on August 21, 2024, through the Base Name Service. They allow users to establish their digital identities within the Base ecosystem, make transactions with easily readable names, and connect to different apps. BNS relies on the same technologies powering ENS names deployed on the Base blockchain.
To receive a BNS name, users need to check its availability on base.org and pay annual registration fees based on the name’s length. Shorter names cost more; for example, the price for a name with 10 or more characters is 0.0001 ETH around $0.26 while a 3-character name costs 0.1 ETH - around $265 at current rates.
5. Friend.tech: Social Network That Went Viral in 2023
The home page of the friend.tech website. Source: friend.tech
Friend.tech launched on Base on August 10, 2023, and became a sensation shortly after. It’s a social app connecting creators with audiences through clubs and chat rooms, offering new monetization opportunities.
On Friend.tech, users can create and sell tokenized shares, known as "keys," linked to their social media accounts, allowing buyers access to private chat rooms and token airdrops. The platform’s native token, FRIEND, is used for community activities.
Within 10 days of its launch, Friend.tech attracted over 72,000 users, with its TVL exceeding $7 million.
Statistics show that Friend.tech’s user activity has declined in recent months. However, the platform remains popular in 2024, with a TVL of over $3.2 million, according to DefiLlama. In May 2024, Friend.tech announced the launch of V2 and migration from Base to Ethereum but later reversed these plans.
6. Virtuals Protocol: Platform to Create Onchain AI Personas
The home page of the Virtuals Protocol’s website. Source: virtuals.io
Virtuals Protocol is a Web3 platform where users can create and own AI agents — virtual characters capable of interacting within digital environments. These AI agents can speak and move in 3D spaces across entertainment apps such as metaverses, games, and social media.
Each AI agent has its own token, which can be used to reward users for the revenue generated by the agent's activities. AI tokens are launched through Initial Agent Offerings (IAOs), allowing buyers to become co-owners of the asset. To purchase any agent token, users must pay with the platform’s native token, VIRTUAL.
The platform launched on the mainnet in March 2024. Among the most popular AI agents on Virtuals is Luna with over 500,000 followers on TikTok. Luna live streams non-stop and engages in conversations with fans.
7. Alien Base: Decentralized Exchange for Tokens and Memecoins
The homepage of the Alien Base’s website. Source: alienbase.xyz
Alien Base is one of the largest decentralized exchanges on Base, with a TVL of over $24 million. It aims to improve the user trading experience by aggregating all pools on the Base network. Apart from this, Alien Base enables developers to launch their tokens quickly.
Epsilon, the swapping system for Alien Base, allows users to compare different trading quotes and choose the best option for them. The platform’s features include yield farming, stablecoin pools called StableSwap, and Single Staking, which enables users to lock up a single type of cryptocurrency and earn rewards.
Alien Base was launched in August 2023, with its native ALB token used for governance, rewards, and payments. Token holders can make proposals to the Alien Base DAO if they hold at least 100,000 ALB.
8. Heroes of Mavia: Clash of Clans-Like Game in Web3
Heroes of Mavia characters. Source: @MaviaGame on X
Heroes of Mavia is a Web3 mobile strategy game available for iOS and Android users. The app has its native MAVIA token, launched on Base on February 6, 2024. MAVIA is used for governance, trading, and access to in-game items. Heroes of Mavia players can battle other players, buy, rent, or partner with landowners to build a base and earn rewards when competing with others.
Besides MAVIA, the game has two other tokens: Ruby and Sapphire. With Ruby, players can trade NFTs with other players and create NFTs on the Ruby NFT marketplace. Meanwhile, Sapphire serves as a premium in-game currency used to purchase resources like speed, shields, gold, and oil.
9. Avantis: DEX for Trading Crypto, Forex, and Commodities
The homepage of Avantis's website. Source: avanifi.com
Avantis is the first perpetual exchange backed by Base, allowing users to trade perpetual contracts that enable speculation on the price of underlying assets without actually owning them. These contracts provide traders with the ability to take positions on various financial instruments, including cryptocurrencies, commodities, forex, and metals.
Avantis supports cross-asset leverage, allowing users to long or short synthetic cryptocurrencies, commodities, forex, and metals. The allowed leverage on crypto is 50x, while for forex and commodities, it’s 100x.
Traders need to provide collateral in the USDC stablecoin, and liquidity providers earn yield from trading activities. Avantis offers users risk management tools, such as loss protection and positive slippage for better market prices.
Avantis was launched on the mainnet in February 2024. Currently, the total traded volume on the platform is over $1.4 billion, with around 380,000 trades, based on the official website.
10. Extra Finance: Yield Farming Protocol on Optimism and Base
The home page of the Extrafi website. Source: app.extrafi.io
Extra Finance is a decentralized application on the Base and Optimism chains that allows users to deposit funds to earn lending interest and execute various yield strategies. ExtraFi’s Leveraged Yield Farming feature enables users to borrow additional funds to invest in liquidity pools, thereby increasing their potential returns on investments. This approach can maximize returns without requiring additional assets as collateral. However, there is also the risk of losing money since users borrow to invest in a volatile market.
ExtraFi was launched on Base in September 2023 and has grown into one of the leading DeFi platforms on the chain. The protocol has its native token, EXTRA, which is used for staking, governance, and rewards.
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Anahit Avetisyan
Author
Web3 writer and crypto HODLer with a keen interest in market trends and recent technologies.
