On August 5, 2025, Coinbase's Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, Base, experienced a 33-minute outage due to a faulty sequencer. The incident, which began at approximately 06:07 UTC, caused a temporary halt in block production, disrupting transaction flow and raising concerns about centralization risks. Normal operations resumed by 07:13 UTC.

The outage occurred when the active sequencer began falling behind on block production. Conductor, Base's system for managing sequencer availability, initiated a switch to a backup sequencer. However, the backup sequencer was not properly set up to process transactions, leading to the network outage. Base has since fixed the issue to ensure any chosen sequencer is ready to process transactions.

The incident exposed Base's reliance on centralized sequencers. Base currently relies on a single sequencer operated by Coinbase, which serves as the sole authority for ordering transactions and producing blocks. This centralized setup creates a single point of failure that can halt the entire network.

During the disruption, users were unable to send or receive funds or interact with dApps. Although no user funds were lost, the outage affected transaction throughput and temporarily impacted DeFi dApps. Pending transactions also clogged the pipeline.

The Base team has acknowledged the issue and is taking steps to prevent future outages. Base's head of engineering stated that the team takes chain uptime seriously and is working to harden their systems. Base plans to update its infrastructure to ensure all sequencers in the cluster can handle block-building responsibilities if selected.

The outage has reignited discussions about decentralized failover mechanisms for Layer-2 networks. Critics and decentralization advocates have renewed calls for Base to diversify its infrastructure by deploying backup sequencers or adopting a more decentralized rollup architecture. Some experts suggest other Layer-2 rollups with decentralized sequencing models as templates. The incident underscores the need for redundancy of sequencers to avoid future shutdowns.

This was not the first time Base has experienced a network outage. On September 5, 2023, shortly after its public launch, Base had a 43-minute block production halt. Base also experienced outages in September 2024.

Some crypto pundits viewed Base's outage as a positive sign, with one developer noting that downtime is only a concern for chains with actual users. However, the incident highlights the importance of network reliability and the need for robust infrastructure to support the growing Ethereum scaling ecosystem. As Layer-2 solutions become increasingly critical, expectations for network uptime will continue to rise. Users and developers are likely to demand stronger guarantees and fallback systems as rollups become mission-critical infrastructure.