Speed Runs on Base: Covalent Data Behind Crypto’s Fastest-Growing Chain
Base is having its moment.
From creator coins and meme trading frenzies to institutional liquidity flowing onchain, Base has become a hub for both culture and capital. TVL now sits at $4.69B across and close to 600 protocols, led by lending and DEX giants like Morpho, Aave, Aerodrome, and Uniswap. Aerodrome alone supports 400+ trading pairs with ~$36M in daily volume, making it one of Base’s most active liquidity venues. The ecosystem is diversifying quickly, with risk management and capital allocation platforms rounding out a strong DeFi foundation.
Base TVL Aug 11 2025
Beneath the surface, Base’s growth is being powered by data infrastructure that can match its speed. Through GoldRush’s Foundational API and its ultra-fast Streaming API capable of showing Base Flashblocks, Covalent delivers structured data with sub-200 millisecond latency, which is fast enough for high-frequency bots, onchain agents, and AI-driven strategies. Active streaming subscriptions on the GoldRush Streaming API have already surpassed 57,000, underscoring the demand for reliable, low-latency access.
In an environment where even milliseconds of delay can mean missed trades, stale AI outputs, or failed arbitrage, the combination of Base’s ultra-fast chain and Covalent’s developer-first platform gives builders the performance edge they need to operate at scale.
Base’s protocol ranking by TVL Aug 11 2025
The Base App: Base’s “Everything” Hub
Launched this summer, the Base App is becoming a central interface for both consumer and developer activity. Users can trade, tip in USDC, mint NFTs, launch creator coins, and experiment with AI agents without leaving the environment.
Behind the scenes, GoldRush ensures that every onchain action within the app is captured and available through structured queries or streamed directly to applications. This allows builders to create products that react instantly to user activity, from algorithmic trading engines to real-time social feeds.
Zora: The Creator Economy’s Onchain Catalyst
Zora is the biggest story on the Base App right now. Its integration into the Base App lets users mint ERC-20 creator coins from posts, artworks, and media, then trade them instantly in the same feed. It draws comparisons to Robinhood for its accessibility and hype, and these numbers from CoinDesk show why:
ZORA token up 50% in 24h, +118% in a week
47,000 creator tokens minted in a single day by 21,000 creators
Nearly 3M unique traders, $470M+ in volume, and 1.6M tokens minted — now outpacing Solana in daily token creation
On July 27, Base recorded 54,341 new token launches, surpassing Solana’s 25,460 that same day. That surge reflects how deeply Zora and Farcaster’s integration into Base is driving onchain activity. This wave is cementing Base’s position as both a DeFi powerhouse and a cultural hub, blending financial infrastructure with the creative economies thriving on its network.
Daily token creation and wallet activity on Base
Aerodrome x Coinbase: A Strategic Shift Onchain
Coinbase has taken another clear step toward embedding onchain activity directly into its core product. Liquidity pools on Base via Aerodrome are now natively visible inside the Coinbase app. This means:
Every Aerodrome pair is instantly tradable in Coinbase’s interface, including CXT, without the need to bridge, swap, or leave the app.
For new Base-native projects, this is day-one exposure to one of the largest US-based retail audiences in crypto, potentially accelerating token adoption from weeks to hours.
For Coinbase users, it blurs the line between CEX and onchain, giving them direct access to DeFi liquidity from a platform they already trust.
This is a signal that Coinbase is moving further into the onchain arena, not just supporting Base as an experiment, but actively positioning it as a primary venue for trading, liquidity, and DeFi participation.
Stablecoin Dominance: Base’s Liquidity Backbone
With stablecoins making up more than 91% of its total liquidity, Base has built a deep capital pool that anchors lending protocols, fuels high-volume DEX trading, and supports institutional flows. That financial stability is helping it solidify a role as one of the most dependable settlement layers in DeFi, alongside its rapid cultural and ecosystem growth.
According to DeFiLlama (Aug 11, 2025):
Total stablecoin market cap: $4.291B
USDC dominance: 89.10%
Overall stablecoin dominance: ~91.44%
Stablecoin stats on Base Aug 11 2025
High concentration in stable assets reduces slippage and supports high-volume trading. This liquidity also strengthens infrastructure for derivatives, lending, and cross-chain capital movement, pointing to Base’s role as a settlement layer for onchain finance.
Why This Matters
The Base ecosystem is advancing on multiple fronts — from billions in DeFi liquidity to millions in creator coin trading — and it’s doing so as one of the fastest, most scalable L2 in the market. This pace isn’t happening in isolation. Infrastructure partners like Covalent are providing the data backbone that allows builders to move at Base speed.
With GoldRush, every transaction, trade, and contract deployment on Base can be indexed, verified, and streamed in under 200 milliseconds. That capability turns raw activity into an actionable feed for high-frequency bots, AI agents, and real-time analytics. The result is an environment where liquidity flows faster, cultural moments get captured instantly, and both developers and traders can operate without friction.
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