Base Blockchain Back Online After Two-Hour Network Outage

Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network Base has returned to normal operations following an unexpected outage that lasted approximately two hours, during which block production and transaction processing were completely suspended.

The disruption first became publicly visible at 16:03 UTC on Thursday, when the Base team flagged that mainnet block production had entered an "unhealthy" state. Nearly an hour later, at 16:52 UTC, developers confirmed they had pinpointed the source of the problem and were actively working on multiple remediation strategies to restore the network.

According to an official statement from the Base team, the chain has since fully resumed operations. Internal nodes are reported to be syncing correctly. However, the team acknowledged that the root cause investigation is still ongoing. As a precautionary measure, all ecosystem node operators were advised to manually restart their Base nodes in order to re-establish proper synchronization.

Early findings suggest that an invalid block was the trigger for the cascading failure that brought down the network. What specifically caused the block to be deemed invalid — whether it was a software-level bug, a consensus mechanism fault, or another underlying issue — has not yet been publicly disclosed by the development team.

Base is one of Ethereum's largest and most actively used layer-2 scaling networks, backed by major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The network handles a significant volume of daily transactions, making the two-hour halt a notable event for the broader Ethereum ecosystem.

This is not the first time Base has experienced operational difficulties. The network previously went offline in August 2025, marking an earlier high-profile disruption. Prior to that, the network had also recorded a brief 29-minute downtime, its first since launching in 2023.

The Base development team stated it will continue to closely monitor network stability in the aftermath of the incident and has committed to providing further updates as more information becomes available through the ongoing investigation. Users and node operators are encouraged to stay tuned to official channels for any new developments.