Base activates Denim upgrade, cutting block times tenfold to speed up trading and payments

Denim upgrade promises enhanced finality, streamlined B20 compliance, and millisecond precision timing for smart contracts. Base, the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum layer 2 network, has activated Denim, its fourth major upgrade, on the mainnet after testing the release on Sepolia last month. Denim reduces block times tenfold to 200 milliseconds from two seconds, bringing the blockchain closer to transaction speeds expected in trading and payment applications, the team said Thursday. https://t.co/XrWe2zqdMG — Base Build (@buildonbase) November 5, 2026 The upgrade replaces Flashblocks with five complete canonical blocks per second, meaning transactions included in a block are confirmed on the chain rather than appearing first in a provisional state that could later change. Base stated that the change aims to make onchain transactions faster and more responsive for trading and payments while supporting tokenized stocks and other assets that require faster onchain settlement. Previously, Base produced one canonical block every two seconds and used Flashblocks to stream previews of pending transactions between blocks. Those previews could be dropped from the final block, forcing applicatio...