Memecoin Frenzy Arrives On Base As Tokens' Market Cap Crosses $1 Billion

Move over Solana, it’s time for Base to have some fun.

Memecoins are taking hold of Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by crypto exchange Coinbase. The market capitalization of memecoins on Base grew by 477% to $1.02 billion in the past 24 hours, according to Coingecko.

Solana memecoins’ market cap is up 17% to $6.4 billion, while the broader Meme category is up 12% to $62 billion, in the same time.

Top performing tokens are Briun Armstrung, named in reference to Coinbase’s CEO and founder, Brian Armstrong. The token jumped 25% to $0.02 today, gaining a whopping 362% in the past seven days. Tokens with mis-spellled celebrity names took off on Solana, with Jeo Boden, and Doland Tremp rising to become two of the most popular examples.

Degen is today's biggest winner on the Base network, notching a 52% gain on the day, trading for $0.01. Its market cap sits at $213 million. Based Chad and doginme round out the top 3, up more than 40% and 50%, respectively.

Base is enjoying an explosive March, likely due to memecoin trading and bots. Weekly transactions reached an all-time high last week, with 4.75 million transactions, as did new user count, which notched its second biggest week, adding 409,359 signups, according to a Dune dashboard.

Total value locked on Base has also gone vertical, nearly doubling to $939 million from $477 million on Feb. 29 , as per data from DefiLlama.

Base Fees Spike

Fees on Base are spiking, however. Revenue peaked on March 19 as traders paid $1.67 million to the network, a near 700% increase from the day before. Transaction costs dropped today to $921,000.

Base creator, Jesse Pollak, posted on X the reasons behind the surge. After Ethereum’s latest upgrade, Dencun, went live on March 3, transaction costs plummeted on Layer 2s, right as memecoin season kicked off.

The Dencun upgrade and its subsequent lower fees prompted more users to use Base, which piqued demand, leading to above-target blocks, said Pollak.

But the company is making moves to help assuage high costs. Base is preparing to raise the network's gas target by 2-3 times, along with testing a parallel pathing work that will aim to achieve the company’s medium term gas goal.

Solana/Base Rotation

According to crypto trader Miles Deutscher, degen traders are flocking to Base.

“The Solana > Base rotation is underway,” he posted on X on March 24, adding a photo of a dashboard with memecoins that have pumped tens of thousands of percentage points.

Memecoins have been the talk of the town in crypto in the past few months. Most of the frenzy has taken place on Solana, with users posting on Twitter lifechanging gains. The lighthearted ecosystem took a turn last week as traders launched a plethora of racist tokens.

If degens can expect a similar scenario to take place on Base as it did on Solana, then wild times await.