Analysis of Base Ecosystem Development Trends and Popular Projects

Recent Changes in the Base Ecosystem

Since the end of May 2025, the Base ecosystem has shown a clear "explosion period". The daily active addresses of ecosystem users, TVL, and daily trading volume are all on a rapid upward trend. This explosion is mainly driven by the successive hype of several popular narratives within the ecosystem, attracting widespread market attention. From a macro perspective, the global stock market's optimistic sentiment towards the concept of stablecoins is also spreading, especially against the backdrop of a potentially improving regulatory environment, making Base a more favored choice for traditional institutions.

Main indicator changes:

• Active Users: The number of active addresses has increased exponentially, recently reaching a historical high of 3.6M.
• TVL: The total value locked has risen from 2.8 billion USD in May to nearly 4 billion USD, returning to the peak level of the bull market in 2024.
• On-chain transactions: Since May, the average daily transaction volume has approached 9 million, reaching the highest point of the 24-year bull market.

Analysis of Popular Projects in the Base Ecosystem

1. Virtual: Innovative new mechanism ignites the market

Virtual is one of the most关注 projects in the Base ecosystem recently, and its innovative new issuance mechanism has quickly attracted a large amount of capital and user participation. The price of the VIRTUAL token rose from $0.5 in mid-April to a peak of $2.5 in early June, an increase of 400%.

The core advantages of the Virtual New Share Mechanism:

• Extremely low financing price: Each new project raises funds with a market value of 42,425 virtual (approximately $224,000), allowing users to participate at an extremely low price.
• Token Linear Unlocking: New projects adopt a transparent token economic model for phased unlocking.
• Low-risk participation: Full refund for projects that do not successfully raise funds, and only a small number of high-quality projects are released daily.
• Reduce the probability of project Rug: set a 1% transaction fee, of which 70% is returned to the project party to encourage increased trading activity.

However, as the platform's popularity increased, early users frequently obtained high returns through the "new listing and sell" strategy, resulting in significant selling pressure on new projects. In response, Virtual launched the "Green Lock Mechanism" in mid-June, imposing a mandatory lock-up period for new listing users. While this mechanism helps curb early selling, it also significantly alters the original speculative logic, leading to a temporary decline in market enthusiasm. The price of VIRTUAL has fallen from its peak to $1.69, a drop of over 37%.

2. Kaito: Pioneer in the attention economy field

As a leading project in the "Information Finance (InfoFi)" sector, Kaito's price has risen from $0.79 to a peak of $2.41 since May, an increase of nearly 205%.

The core highlight of Kaito lies in its Yaps module:

• Tokenize the content posted by users on social media platforms as "attention tokens"
• Encourage users to create high-quality content around popular projects
• Build a content-driven influence mechanism for Web3 communication
• Increase community engagement through weekly airdrops and leaderboard rewards.

Kaito has also launched the Yapper Launchpad system based on points ranking and the AI-driven information network Kaito Connect, achieving a collaborative closed loop of content contribution, points distribution, and project selection. This model, anchored in content as a value point, brings a new narrative to Base that is distinct from traditional DeFi, opening up new imaginative spaces in the integration of social and financial sectors.

Future Development Trends of Coinbase and Base

In June 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Stablecoin Act, establishing a legislative framework for U.S. dollar stablecoins. Against this regulatory backdrop, Coinbase, as a compliant exchange, initiated three strategic layouts:

1. Connect Coinbase and on-chain assets through Base.
2. Issue compliant stablecoins on Base in collaboration with traditional financial institutions.
3. Build diversified application scenarios in the Base ecosystem

Strategy 1: Open the compliance asset access channel to the blockchain

Coinbase has launched the Verified Pools feature, allowing KYC users to interact directly with DApps on Base using their Coinbase account balance, simplifying the wallet switching and on-chain transfer process.

Strategy II: Build a Compliant Stablecoin System

Coinbase collaborates with traditional financial institutions to pilot the issuance of "compliant stablecoins" and "deposit tokens" on the Base chain. These assets are custodial by regulated banks and possess traditional financial attributes such as interest returns, legal protection, and bank insurance, providing a stronger trust foundation for Base.

Strategic Three: Build a Diverse Ecological Scenario

To enhance the use cases of on-chain dollars, Coinbase is promoting the diversified development of the Base ecosystem:

• On-chain US stock trading: Application for the launch of tokenized stock products
• Integration with the Circle ecosystem: Providing a stronger settlement infrastructure for USDC through CPN.
• Global Crypto Payments: Partnering with e-commerce platforms to integrate stablecoins into the checkout process
• Compliance DeFi: Guiding DeFi projects to operate in compliance through KYC modules
• AI Agent and InfoFi: Developing innovative on-chain gameplay to attract traditional users

High-Potential Projects in the Base Ecosystem

1. Aerodrome: As an ecological leading DEX, it is expected to receive continuous institutional liquidity support.
2. Uniswap: A DEX integrated with Coinbase, expected to gain more on-chain liquidity.
3. Keeta: A high-performance RWA public chain that may collaborate with Base in the direction of RWA compliance in the future.
4. Creator Bid: Launched version 2.0 in collaboration with Kaito, expanding the creator economy gameplay.
5. Upside: The first social-oriented prediction market platform on Base, with the potential to become a new type of application.

Overall, Base is evolving from an "active trading" L2 network into a "well-structured" on-chain financial and content infrastructure. Although some hot projects are facing challenges in the short term, the narrative continuity and institutional connectivity demonstrated by the Base ecosystem suggest that it is likely to become an important bridge for traditional capital to enter Web3 in the long run. For investors, Base is not only a hot rotation track but also an important case study for observing the transformation path of the crypto industry.