Base Blockchain Resumes After Two-Hour Block Production Halt

Coinbase-backed Ethereum Layer 2 network Base has fully restored operations after a consensus-related issue halted block production for nearly two hours, disrupting transaction confirmations across the network.

The outage began around 14:30 UTC on Wednesday, when block production on Base stopped entirely. The network's status page showed no new blocks for roughly 110 minutes. Base team members said the issue stemmed from a consensus failure during a routine infrastructure upgrade, not from an external attack or exploit.

Transactions submitted during the outage remained in a pending state. Funds were not at risk, the team said, because the network's sequencer – the component that orders transactions before posting them to Ethereum – held them in a queue. Once block production resumed, the sequencer processed the backlog. No transactions were lost or double-spent.

Base is one of the largest Ethereum Layer 2 networks by total value locked, with roughly $3.5 billion in deposits at the time of the outage, according to L2Beat data. The network processes about 2.5 million transactions per day. A two-hour halt means roughly 200,000 transactions were delayed.

The outage is the second significant disruption for a major Ethereum Layer 2 in 2025. Arbitrum suffered a similar consensus failure in February that lasted 45 minutes. Both incidents stemmed from software upgrades that introduced unexpected state conflicts between the sequencer and the underlying Ethereum consensus layer.

Base's team said it has identified the root cause and deployed a fix. The network's status page now shows normal block production. The team said it will publish a post-mortem within 48 hours detailing the exact sequence of events and any changes to the upgrade process.

For traders using Base-based decentralized exchanges or lending protocols, the outage meant positions could not be opened, closed, or liquidated during the halt. Most major DeFi protocols on Base, including Aerodrome and Uniswap, resumed normal operation once block production restarted. No protocol reported abnormal losses or bad debt from the interruption.

The incident highlights a structural risk for Ethereum Layer 2 networks: the sequencer is a single point of failure during upgrades. While funds remain safe, the inability to transact for extended periods creates real execution risk for active traders and automated strategies.