Coinbase’s Base Network Suffers Two-Hour Outage Due to Consensus Failure

Key Takeaways

• Base, the Coinbase-supported layer-2 blockchain, experienced a nearly two-hour shutdown Thursday following a consensus failure
• The network sequenced an invalid block, which stopped the creation of subsequent blocks
• Normal block production resumed at approximately 6 pm UTC, with infrastructure across the ecosystem syncing properly
• Jesse Pollack, Base’s creator, assured users that all funds remained secure during the incident
• The network outage occurred just hours before the Beryl upgrade was deployed successfully

Base, Coinbase’s prominent Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, experienced a significant disruption Thursday when a consensus malfunction led to the processing of an invalid block, bringing all network transactions to a standstill for approximately two hours.

https://twitter.com/buildonbase/status/2070226214858708218?s=20

The issue first surfaced at 4:03 pm UTC when Base’s network status dashboard indicated block production had become “unhealthy.” At 5:21 pm UTC, engineers pinpointed the culprit: a consensus error that allowed an invalid block to enter the sequence, effectively blocking the generation of any additional blocks.

Shortly before 6 pm UTC, Base announced recovery, confirming that blocks were “being produced normally” and ecosystem-wide services had successfully synchronized. The team promised a comprehensive post-mortem analysis would follow.

Node operators received guidance to reboot their Base nodes to ensure proper synchronization. The team verified that internal nodes were syncing correctly after the restoration.

All Funds Secure as Team Investigates Root Cause

Jesse Pollack, the architect behind Base, took to X to provide assurance that user funds on the network were never at risk during the downtime. He described the halt as unacceptable and pledged to leverage the incident to strengthen Base’s reliability as infrastructure for “global, 24/7 finance.”

Base has yet to reveal the complete technical explanation for the invalid block incident, including whether it originated from a code defect or another form of consensus breakdown. A detailed post-mortem report is forthcoming.

This marks the second downtime event for Base. The network previously went offline in August 2025 for approximately 33 minutes. Thursday’s disruption lasted substantially longer at nearly two hours.

Network Upgrade Proceeds Despite Earlier Disruption

The network interruption happened mere hours before Base’s scheduled Beryl upgrade, originally planned for 6 pm UTC. The upgrade proceeded as intended and concluded around 8 pm UTC.

Beryl’s implementation focused on minimizing withdrawal waiting periods and introducing an innovative token standard tailored for real-world assets and stablecoins.

The two incidents appear unrelated. Base has not suggested any connection between the Beryl deployment and the earlier outage.

As the leading Ethereum layer-2 solution by usage metrics, Base’s Thursday downtime represents an unusual occurrence for a blockchain platform of its prominence.

Similar incidents have affected other networks, including Sui’s layer-1 blockchain, which suffered two consecutive daily outages in May, both stemming from network updates with acknowledged low-probability halt risks.

Base’s engineering team committed to ongoing network stability monitoring and indicated additional updates would be released as the investigation progresses.

The successful deployment of the Beryl upgrade later that evening signaled the network’s complete return to standard functionality.

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