Base pulls in $4.7 billion in net inflows since January 1

Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network built by Coinbase, has taken in $4.7 billion in net inflows since January 1. That is the amount of money arriving on the chain after subtracting what left. The inflows coincide with Base’s DeFi activity hitting record levels in 2026. Lending protocols, stablecoins and tokenized stocks are all drawing more users onto the network. Where the money is going Base’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) hit an all-time high of approximately $6.2 billion on September 22, 2026. TVL is the total value of assets deposited in a network’s apps, such as lending pools and trading venues. As of early October 2026, Base TVL stood at around $6.4 billion, and bridged value on the network reached $8.28 billion. Bridged value tracks assets moved onto Base from other chains, mostly Ethereum mainnet. Protocols such as Morpho, which matches borrowers and lenders on-chain, have pulled in a large share of the activity. The stablecoin market cap on Base sits at approximately $5.2 billion, with USDC accounting for roughly 84% of it. Coinbase co-founded the Centre consortium behind USDC with Circle, so Base holding mostly Circle’s dollar token is about as surprising as finding Coke ...