Base Surpasses Ethereum in Tokenized Treasury Market Growth

The tokenized US Treasury market has seen rapid growth in recent months, with total on-chain market cap tripling since early 2025 to between $13.6B and $16.2B. Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network built by Coinbase, experienced the largest single-day increase in this market, adding $636K to its tokenized government debt holdings.

Despite its modest slice of the pie, with Treasury-related real-world asset (RWA) total value locked on the network at approximately $37.95M, Base has emerged as a top choice for institutional users seeking yield-bearing on-chain assets. This growth is largely attributed to Spiko, a tokenized treasury product issuer that has made Base one of its primary distribution rails.

Base's success can be seen as a catalyst for the adoption of layer-2 networks in this space, with new capital exploring these options instead of defaulting to mainnet Ethereum. BlackRock's BUIDL fund and other companies such as Circle, Ondo Finance, and Anemoy (operating through Centrifuge) have carved out positions in the tokenized Treasury market.

The overall short-duration T-bill market is valued at approximately $6.6 trillion, with tokenized versions currently representing roughly 0.2% of that total. This presents a compelling strategic logic for Base to host yield-bearing government debt, giving institutional users a reason to deploy capital on the network beyond simple DeFi speculation.