Base, a Layer-2 (L2) blockchain developed by Coinbase, transitioned from a Stage 0 to Stage 1 rollup, effectively overtaking Arbitrum (ARB) as the largest Ethereum scaling solution.
Stages refer to a framework for assessing the maturity of L2 rollups, based on milestones proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Base Becomes Largest Ethereum L2, Arbitrum Follows
Data on L2Beat shows Arbitrum One is no longer the largest optimistic rollup on Ethereum. L2Beat is an analytics and research website focused on Ethereum layer-2 scaling.
After a $557 million surge in TVL (Total Value Locked), Base has overtaken Arbitrum L2, with a margin of more than $710 million in total value secured (TVS).
Alongside overtaking Arbitrum One, Base has also matured from Stage 0, where the rollup is fully controlled by its operators (full training wheels).
It is now a Stage 1 rollup, featuring smart contract governance. However, because a security council remains in place to handle potential bugs, this stage features “limited training wheels.”
“Proud that Base is now stage 1 — and #1 by TVS but it’s still day one. Time to bring the world on-chain,” wrote Base creator Jesse Pollak.
“Welcome to the full-EVM stage 1 gang Base,” Buterin remarked.
The Ethereum executive said he would only recognize L2 networks that reach stage 1+ maturity. Buterin referred to his threshold for measuring different stages of L2s based on a decentralization scale.
“Stage 1 (75% threshold on the council to override the proof system, 26%+ of the council must be outside the rollup team) is a very reasonable moderate milestone. The multisigs I am in have not had a single liveness failure in years, let alone 26%. The era of rollups being glorified multisigs is ending. The era of cryptographic trust is upon us,” Buterin explained.
This ultimatum aligned with Buterin’s vision of advancing cryptographic trust. Recently, Buterin proposed a plan to scale Ethereum’s L1 and L2 protocols in 2025.
While this is the first time Base has overtaken Arbitrum, it is not the first time it has challenged its market position. In hindsight, Base TVL surpassed $2 billion in September after 400% growth, which saw it close in on Arbitrum’s $2.6 billion TVL.
Aerodrome remains the leading protocol on Base L2. It boasts up to $830 million in TVL, up 5% in the last week. Other leading protocols on Base include Morpho, Aave, and Uniswap.
As Base takes the lead, it is impossible to forget Arbitrum’s Achilles’ Heel. The network is still digging out of an 80% crash. Key interventions to recover include token buybacks and the recently rejected Nvidia accelerator program bid.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao made a rare public appearance in Hong Kong Sunday, revealing he rarely trades cryptocurrency despite founding the world’s largest exchanges.
The appearance was particularly noteworthy as Zhao recently denied reports he would attend another Hong Kong crypto event on April 8. His presence at both the BNB Super Meetup and the MVB 9th event generated significant attention in the crypto community.
CZ talking with Justin Sun at a BNB event in Hong Kong. Source:X(joezhoublack)
Market Concerns and Investment Advice
“The industry is not particularly healthy right now,” Zhao said during the BNB Super Meetup, criticizing excessive focus on meme coins. “We’re putting too much attention on quick gains.”
In a surprising admission, Zhao said, “I don’t speculate much. I don’t trade crypto much. I haven’t bought any meme coins.”
Zhao, worth approximately $66.6 billion, suggested several dozen to “over a hundred” cryptocurrencies could potentially outperform Bitcoin long-term, while emphasizing Bitcoin remains the most stable investment.
For newcomers, he recommended a disciplined approach “I strongly recommend young people invest a small amount each month that you can afford to lose,” he advised, endorsing dollar-cost averaging. “There’s no bad time to enter the market, but how you enter is very important.”
Past Mistakes
Zhao acknowledged mistakes in Binance’s approach to DeFi, admitting he failed to give proper attention to the BNB ecosystem while dealing with US legal issues.
“We didn’t focus enough on the BNB ecosystem. This was a big mistake.”
When asked about BNB’s future value, Zhao avoided specific predictions but emphasized that expanding use cases would naturally increase its value.
Personal Life
Zhao revealed numerous countries now seek his blockchain advice, including the UAE, United States, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan. “Now countries need us, and we can support them,” he said.
In a separate interview with Tron founder Justin Sun, Zhao discussed his digital education project aimed at providing free content to children worldwide. “With about $300 million, we could digitize 18 years of education across 30 subjects,” he explained.
Before the Super Meetup, Zhao appeared alongside Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin at BNB Chain’s MVB 9th event, where 16 projects were selected for an acceleration program.
When asked about his daily routine, Zhao said he typically works from bed due to back problems and enjoys kitesurfing in his free time. “Most of my time is spent working from bed because my back isn’t great,” he shared.
He completed a four-month prison sentence in September 2024 after pleading guilty to U.S. federal charges related to money laundering. Binance paid $4.3 billion in fines, while Zhao personally paid $50 million.
The state of security across the crypto and blockchain space has changed significantly in the past few months. Traditional smart contracts exploited or brute force attacks on blockchain networks are being superseded by crypto scams like rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes.
BeInCrypto spoke with a spokesperson from security firm CertiK to understand how blockchain and security threats are evolving and how projects and users can safeguard against future exploits.
Social Media Hacks on the Rise
Over the past few months, the crypto community has seen a rise in social media-related hacks. This increasingly common tendency has pivoted away from the orchestration of more sophisticated blockchain attacks that have traditionally plagued headlines.
Whereas smart contract exploits or blockchain hacks require more knowledge, hackers have found an easier avenue by targeting social media accounts instead.
X (formerly Twitter) has quickly become the social media platform of choice among Web3 hackers.
Social Media is Now a Prime Target for Web3 Hackers
After US President Donald Trump launched his meme coin only two days before assuming office, hackers began to take advantage of the hype to hack high-profile X accounts and convince followers to invest in scam meme coins.
Last month, anonymous hackers took over the X account of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to promote MALAYSIA, a fake meme coin promoted as the country’s official cryptocurrency.
The post was removed within an hour, but the damage was done. Analysis shows that these hackers were probably related to the infamous Russian Evil Corp and that they stole $1.7 million in this rug pull.
The MALAYSIA token scam happened only two weeks after hackers exploited former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s social media account. In that instance, scammers promoted the BRAZIL token, which rose over 10,000% in minutes, netting the scammers over $1.3 million.
These scams have also affected technological companies.
Attacks on Tech Companies
In December, AI research and development company Anthropic also saw its X account hacked. A fraudulent post claimed that a fake token called CLAUDE would incentivize AI and crypto projects and included a wallet address for investors.
Attackers managed to collect around $100,000 from speculative investors.
These situations also highlight a broader issue of weak account security on social media platforms. As a result, even prominent individuals are susceptible to security breaches that directly affect the crypto community.
TRUMP Meme Coin Launch Was a Catalyst For Crypto Scams
“Now is the time to talk about the fact that large-scale political coins cross a further line: they are not just sources of fun, whose harm is at most contained to mistakes made by voluntary participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political bribery, including from foreign nation states,” Buterin claimed.
Buterin highlighted the tokens’ role in enabling scams and political corruption in crypto and blamed a regulatory loophole former SEC Chair Gary Gensler created for allowing bad actors to exploit governance tokens.
However, these crypto scams extend beyond political themes.
Growth of Social Engineering Exploits
A week after Buterin cautioned against political meme coins, a Coinbase user lost $11.5 million after falling victim to a social engineering scam on Base.
Crypto sleuth ZackXBT uncovered the exploit, pointing out that this incident is part of a growing trend, with multiple Coinbase users suffering similar losses. He also estimates that crypto scams of this nature have drained at least $150 million from Coinbase customers.
“Coinbase has a serious fraud problem. I just uncovered many more recent thefts from Coinbase users. The $150 million stolen from Coinbase users in a year is just from thefts I independently confirmed. So it’s more than likely multiples of this number,” ZachXBT stated.
In social engineering scams, attackers use phishing emails, spoofed calls, and other deceptive tactics to trick victims into revealing private keys or login credentials. Once they gain access, they drain wallets, move funds, and take control of accounts.
For CertiK, these situations stipulate the need for stronger security measures.
Addressing these security challenges is crucial as new crypto projects increase exponentially.
Prioritizing Proactive Security in a Rapidly Growing Industry
The Web3 sector is experiencing consistent growth, marked by a surge in new crypto project launches. This innovative momentum is expected to continue, but it’s also fueling security concerns.
Notably, the increasing rate of scams and hacks in the first three months of 2025 makes it clear that security efforts are struggling to keep up with innovation.
A study by Precedence Research estimates the Web 3.0 market will expand from USD 4.62 billion in 2025 to approximately USD 99.75 billion by 2034, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41.18% during that period.
Predicted market size of Web3 in the next ten years. Source: Precedence Research.
Yet, CertiK believes that project developers are pushing security considerations toward the end of the priority list.
As the Web3 ecosystem evolves, a proactive and adaptive security approach is critical. Prioritizing both blockchain integrity and social media vigilance will be essential for safeguarding the growing Web3 ecosystem.
The battle against these exploits requires a future where security is not an afterthought but a foundational pillar of every Web3 project and user interaction.
After a rough start to the week with massive liquidations, the crypto market has finally experienced some relief, with a rebound driven by favorable broader macroeconomic changes.
Liquidations over the past day totaled $384.4 million, a significant drop from previous days. Meanwhile, the global market cap rose 1.1% over the last day.
According to Coinglass data, $384.4 million was liquidated in the past 24 hours. Of this, $138.2 million came from long positions, while $246.2 million were short positions.
Specifically, Bitcoin saw $186.7 million in liquidations, with $146.0 million attributed to short positions. Ethereum experienced $73.6 million in liquidations, with $40.3 million from long positions and $33.1 million from short positions.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin regained ground over $80,000, trading at $82,299. This marked a 3.6% increase over the past day.
Notably, the recovery could be attributed to recent diplomatic developments. According to Bloomberg, Ukraine agreed to a temporary 30-day ceasefire in response to a US proposal. This has reduced geopolitical tensions that had previously weighed on the market.
Furthermore, Ontario suspended 25% tariffs on electricity exports to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota. This was also a major step towards easing trade tensions.
US political figures, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have also provided much-needed reassurance to the markets. Johnson suggested that President Trump’s economic policies, which initially contributed to market instability, would eventually stabilize the economy.
“Give the president a chance to have these policies play out,” he said.
In addition, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that the market dip represented a temporary state rather than a definitive or permanent trend.
“We are in a period of economic transition,” Leavitt stated.
She emphasized the idea that market numbers, such as stock prices, trading volumes, and liquidations, reflect a specific point in time and can evolve. These combined factors—political reassurances, easing trade tensions, and a reduction in geopolitical risks—have contributed to the crypto market’s recent recovery.
