Ethereum Layer 2 Moves Up! Guess Who’s No Longer The Intern?

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Look out, everybody—Base Network just hit Stage 1 on the Ethereum Rollup Maturity Chart, which is basically crypto puberty. 🎓 Hold your applause; there’s more! Vitalik Buterin (you know, the guy who invented Ethereum and kind of looks like he code-reviews in his dreams) just tossed Base a digital high-five that probably came with its own cryptographic signature.

Base Network Graduates: Look Ma, No Permissioned Operators!

L2Beat, who’s like that kid who always knows your grades before you do, tweeted (or X’d… sure) that Base finally assembled its Security Council. You need a council, otherwise it’s just your parents and their friends trying to remember their MetaMask passwords.

This panel meets some secret, sacred “threshold requirements,” which is code for “they won’t burn the house down (probably).” Now, with a working proof system and five fraud-buster agents who aren’t on Coinbase payroll, Base officially leaves Stage 0, which in real life is just what Ethereum calls obvious early mistakes. The real magic: You can now pack your bags and exit the network without asking, “Mother, may I?”

With this badge of honor, Base slides into an exclusive club—right next to Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, and Unichain—where everyone knows each other’s TVL and nobody RSVPs to anything.

Who’s the Boss? (Spoiler: It’s Still Base)

Okay, so Base may be the new kid, but apparently it’s the popular one texting all the time. While Arbitrum One clings to $11.1 billion in Total Value Locked, Base is already at $11.77 billion. That’s right, Base got rich, fast, and your grandmother’s Bitcoin isn’t even invited.

In fact, Base is like “the Flash” of layer 2s—finalizing transactions in 55 seconds. Arbitrum’s taking a minute (yawn), and OP Mainnet is running about five minutes late, which we in the business call “fashionably late.” Meanwhile, the scene is heating up as these L2s fight over who gets to tokenize stuff nobody has ever asked for (RWA Tokenization, anyone?).

Apparently, your status in the L2 world now depends on your “stage”—not to be confused with your stage of existential dread when trying to explain this all at Thanksgiving.

Is Ethereum Ever Actually Finished?

Leadership changes, new upgrades with names that sound like Ikea furniture (Pectra! Dencun!), and a kazillion teams working overtime—all so Ethereum can finally say it’s “optimized.” Maybe. Someday.

Layer 2s keep getting shinier—thanks, in part, to whatever “Dencun” is (hopefully not a Swedish meatball). Meanwhile, Hayden Adams of Uniswap fame is waving his foam finger, shouting for L2 scaling to keep Solana from stealing the show.

So, Base is climbing the Ethereum ladder, Arbitrum’s grumbling, Unichain’s polishing its badge, and Shibarium is… trying. Strap in, folks. The only thing for sure in crypto is that nothing is ever actually done. 🥳

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2025-04-30 21:37