Chains & Infrastructure
Base Chain: OP Stack Rollup Finality and Fees, Dated
Base is an OP Stack rollup that settles to Ethereum. Its genesis block reads 15 June 2023, 00:35:47 UTC. Soft finality takes about 2 seconds. Hard finality, guaranteed by Ethereum, takes about 15 to 30 minutes. A USDC transfer cost $0.0006 at current conditions on 11 September 2026, at the chain's fee floor.
| Fact | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis block | 15 June 2023, 00:35:47 UTC, four-node identical | C-32 | |
| Architecture | OP Stack rollup, Ethereum settlement | C-31 | |
| Soft finality | About 2 seconds, sequencer inclusion | C-31 | |
| Hard finality | About 15 to 30 minutes, Ethereum-guaranteed | C-31 | |
| Gas token | ETH, EIP-1559-style market plus an L1 data fee | C-31 | |
| Minimum base fee | 5,000,000 wei, raised 19 February 2026 | C-30 | |
| Conditions USDC transfer fee | $0.0006, floor-stable across two pulls | C-32 | |
| Observed median USDC transfer fee | $0.0046, batch-inclusive | C-32 | |
| Stablecoins on chain (provider) | $4,951,542,554 | C-10 |
What Base is
Base is a rollup built on the OP Stack. Its genesis block, block zero, carries a timestamp of 15 June 2023, 00:35:47 UTC [6]. Four independent nodes returned that timestamp identically [6].
One distinction this page keeps sharp. Genesis predates public opening. The widely cited August 2023 public launch date could not be banked from primary sources at the research date. Issuer blog routes yielded no readable post. So the page states the genesis timestamp, which is on-chain fact, and leaves the opening date unstated.
The rollup model
Base executes transactions itself. Ethereum settles them. Base’s own configuration changelog documents its place in the OP Stack upgrade series, with named upgrades like Isthmus [4]. The stack-level model comes from the Optimism documentation Base builds on [5].
What finality means here
The OP Stack finality model runs in stages [5].
| Stage | Time |
|---|---|
| Subblock preconfirmation | About 200 milliseconds |
| Soft finality, L2 block inclusion | About 2 seconds |
| Data on Ethereum | A few minutes |
| Hard finality, finalized | About 15 to 30 minutes |
The stages differ in guarantor. A transaction reaches soft finality when the sequencer processes it [5]. It reaches hard finality, guaranteed by Ethereum, once its batch lands in a finalized Ethereum block [5]. The conservative bar for a settled send is the last row, not the second.
The gas token and the two-part fee
ETH pays gas on Base [5]. The fee has two parts. An EIP-1559-style L2 execution market sets the base fee per gas [5]. A separate L1 data fee pays for posting data to Ethereum, tracked by the GasPriceOracle contract [5].
Base-specific parameters carry dates from the chain’s own changelog [4]. On 19 February 2026, the minimum base fee rose to 5,000,000 wei. On 28 May 2026, the Azul change capped per-transaction gas at 16,777,216 via EIP-7825. Both are docs-verbatim entries in a dated log [4].
Fees, measured
The conditions metric, dated 11 September 2026. Median base fee of 0.005 gwei times 49,398.5 simple-transfer gas, which is 0.000000247 ETH, about $0.0006 [6] [9]. That 0.005 gwei base equals the documented minimum base fee exactly [4]. Docs and chain agree at the floor. A second same-day pull returned the same figure floor-stable [6].
The observed metric. Thirty sampled USDC transfers. The median paid was 0.000001832 ETH, about $0.0046 [6] [9]. Batch-inclusive. The simple subset of that sample paid a median near $0.0007 [6].
One exclusion, named. The observed metric leaves out the L1 data fee. Standard Base receipts do not expose it [6]. The page states the exclusion rather than hiding a leg it cannot see.
The check leg. An independent node returned a gas price of 0.006 gwei and a median base of 0.005 gwei, matching the official endpoint [7]. Its own observed window read about $0.0078, a batch-heavier sample, labeled as such [7].
The stablecoin economy
One provider’s chains table put all stablecoins on Base at $4,951,542,554 on 11 September 2026 [8]. Database-reported, that provider’s methodology.
The roster
Two issuer-listed tokens run natively on Base. Addresses are issuer-doc verbatim, captured fresh on 11 September 2026. An explorer API confirmed each token’s name at the cross-check date.
| Token | Address, as the issuer publishes it |
|---|---|
| USDC, Circle [1] | 0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913 |
| EURC, Circle [2] | 0x60a3E35Cc302bFA44Cb288Bc5a4F316Fdb1adb42 |
The absences, dated. Tether’s protocols page has no Base section [3]. No issuer-published USDt address exists for this chain. The PayPal USD distribution lists no Base leg in the research set, and no banked Sky address rows exist for Base. Omitted, not asserted absent, for both. Wrapped bitcoin assets from the chain’s parent company are not stablecoins and sit outside this roster.
How the figures were checked
The fee trail has three legs. The official endpoint served both sample windows, with identical base-fee parameters [6]. An independent node agreed at the parameter level, 0.006 gwei gas price against 0.005 gwei median base [7]. The chain’s dominant explorer serves its gas tracker as a script-filled template with no static values, so no third oracle leg exists for this chain. The two-node agreement is the check, stated as such.
The dated changelog is itself a checking instrument. The measured 0.005 gwei base equals the documented minimum exactly [4]. When a chain parameter and a live pull coincide at a floor, the docs and the chain corroborate each other. That is the strongest agreement a fee figure gets in this library.
A short video walkthrough
The panel below loads a third-party video walkthrough on sending USDC on Base, selected at build time and checked live through the video manifest. Its content is not this page’s evidence. The documents and dated pulls above are.
Where this page sits
The chains hub holds the other networks. The Ethereum page holds the settlement chain this rollup lands on. The USDC page holds the token this chain carries at scale. The layer 1 versus layer 2 page makes the rollup trade explicit. Every figure above carries its date.
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