Coinbase Shifts Focus to Unified Base Stack Amid Decentralization Concerns

Base, an Ethereum L2 incubated at Coinbase, has reached Stage 1 status via permissionless fault proofs in April 2025. This milestone puts it ahead of Optimism, which remains at Stage 0 according to L2Beat.

Although Base moved up the decentralization ladder, Coinbase still operates the sole sequencer. The February 2025 outage stopped all Base transactions when the Coinbase sequencer failed, highlighting risks like censorship and MEV extraction.

Coinbase announced a shift away from the Optimism-centric decentralization plan in February 2026, opting for a unified, Base-operated stack instead.