Over $4 Billion Exits Coinbase’s Base via Cross-Chain Bridges, While Ethereum Draws $8.5 Billion Inflows

Base Suffers $4.3B Outflows as Ethereum Regains Cross-Chain Capital Dominance

Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base, is experiencing significant outflows in 2025, losing the strong traction it built last year and signaling shifting dynamics in cross-chain bridge usage.

Base, the scaling network created by Nasdaq-listed Coinbase, topped the charts in 2024, securing $3.8 billion in net inflows—the highest among the top 20 blockchains. However, new figures from Artemis Terminal reveal a stark reversal: so far this year, Base has seen net outflows totaling $4.3 billion, undermining its previous leadership position.

Meanwhile, Ethereum, the biggest smart contract platform, is staging a strong recovery. After suffering net outflows of $7.4 billion in 2024, Ethereum has rebounded with $8.5 billion in net inflows this year, signaling renewed investor confidence in the Layer 1 network.

Signs of slowing momentum on Base are also visible in stablecoin activity. The total stablecoin supply on Base has remained stuck at just over $4 billion since mid-May, while trading volumes have declined, according to network activity data.

Data from L2BEAT further indicates that ether (ETH) balances on Base have dropped sharply over the past month—from 1.82 million ETH to a little over 835,000 ETH. This drop reflects a broader trend of ETH exiting Layer 2 networks in recent weeks, according to Michael Nadeau of The DeFi Report on X.

Viktor Bunin, Protocol Specialist at Coinbase, provided insight into what’s driving these withdrawals. Bunin explained that much of the outflows are tied to Binance moving funds back to Ethereum’s Layer 1.

“The vast majority is just Binance withdrawing to L1,” Bunin commented on X. “They kept an enormous amount on the L2s. It’s unclear whether they were incentivized to do so or simply weren’t balancing across all supported chains.”

Cross-chain bridges are crucial for enabling asset and data transfers between different blockchains, helping to knit the broader crypto ecosystem together. The recent shifts underline how quickly capital flows can pivot in the decentralized landscape, influencing which networks attract the most liquidity.