Base | Crypto

Travala’s new protocol lets AI agents search and book hotels with USDC on Base, but travelers still approve the final payment. Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has launched a protocol it says lets artificial intelligence agents search, reserve and pay for hotels with USDC (USDC) on layer-2 blockchain Base, extending agentic AI stablecoin payments into travel bookings. The Travala Travel MCP is live through Claude Desktop, with outside developers able to integrate it into their own travel agents, Travala said in a statement sent to Cointelegraph. The company said the system connects Travala’s hotel inventory to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for linking AI apps to external tools. Payments use Coinbase’s x402 protocol on Base, with Travala saying the setup allows gasless USDC transactions, near-instant settlement and transaction costs of about $0.01 per booking. Read more

New data suggests AI-driven payment rails are evolving beyond experimentation as users are making more higher-value transfers. Agentic payment activity on Coinbase’s Base network has surpassed 100 million transactions, signaling that machine-to-machine payments are moving beyond the proof-of-concept stage in onchain environments. According to a new Chainalysis report, wallets interacting with Coinbase's x402 protocol generated more than 100 million transactions on Base within roughly nine months of launch. The x402 protocol allows software agents to make onchain payments directly through web requests. When an agent requests access to a resource, such as a data feed or API, it can automatically complete a stablecoin payment without human authorization. Read more

The product, called Base MCP, connects a user’s Base Account to AI clients such as ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an emerging standard that allows AI systems to securely interface with external tools and applications.

Visa broadens its crypto pilot to nine blockchains as stablecoin volumes grow, highlighting early traction for onchain settlement in global payments. Global payments giant Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot to include Polygon and four other blockchain networks, signaling continued experimentation with crypto-based payment infrastructure. The pilot, launched by Visa in 2023, allows partners to settle transactions using stablecoins rather than traditional banking rails. Newly supported networks include Polygon, Base, the Canton Network, Arc and Tempo. They join existing supported chains such as Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche. The expansion comes as the program has reached an annualized settlement run rate of roughly $7 billion, growing about 50% quarter over quarter, according to Visa. Despite that growth, volume remains small compared to the company’s core payments business. Read more

Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 Base said it will be upgrading its chain to allow AI agents to use it the same way developers or traders would. Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network Base said it is upgrading key systems in preparation for an AI agent economy as part of its newly released 2026 roadmap, joining the race to support the growing agentic AI ecosystem.  AI agents are discovering crypto markets as their native economy, “building, owning, and trading alongside us,” said Base in its 2026 mission, vision, and strategy update on Tuesday.  Base added that its goal is to build a foundation for an AI agent economy by focusing on building global markets, scaling payments and stablecoins and attracting more developers.  Read more

The Bitcoin lending protocol will allocate 2.25% of its token supply to Aerodrome users as it looks to expand activity for its token and stablecoin. Mezo, a Bitcoin-native lending protocol, will collaborate with Aerodrome Finance to support trading activity for its token and Bitcoin-backed stablecoin on the Base network, as projects look for ways to bring more financial use cases to Bitcoin. In a Thursday announcement, Mezo said it will allocate 2.25% of its MEZO token supply to Aerodrome’s vote-escrow (veAERO) participants — users who lock tokens in exchange for governance rights and rewards. The program is designed to encourage those users to direct funds into MEZO trading pairs, increasing activity around the token and its US dollar-backed stablecoin, MUSD. Aerodrome is a liquidity provider on Base built by the team behind Optimism, a configurable enterprise blockchain infrastructure. Read more

Omnes and Apex plan to issue a tokenized Bitcoin mining debt note on Base, giving eligible non-US investors exposure to hashrate-linked returns. Financial technology company Omnes and financial services provider Apex Group said on Tuesday that they plan to issue a tokenized secured debt note backed by Bitcoin hashrate on Base. The two companies announced that they would tokenize the Omnes Mining Note (OMN), an institutional-grade structured note backed by the Bitcoin (BTC) hashrate. The companies said it will be issued and managed on the Base blockchain, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network. Apex said the note is designed to give institutional investors “direct economic exposure to new Bitcoin production measured in hashrate” without the operational burden of managing mining hardware, energy procurement and facilities. Read more

The system enables AI agents to automatically pay for blockchain data and compute credits in USDC, as autonomous crypto applications gain traction. Blockchain infrastructure company Alchemy has launched a system that allows autonomous AI agents to buy compute credits and access its blockchain data services using onchain wallets and USDC on Base. According to the company’s announcement, the initial release allows AI agents to directly query blockchain networks, check nonfungible token (NFT) ownership, view wallet balances across multiple chains and access live token price data, with additional networks and services planned. If an agent exhausts its prepaid compute credits, Alchemy issues a payment request that can be automatically settled in USDC (USDC) on Base, allowing the agent to continue operating without human intervention. Read more

Base rode SocialFi, memecoins and AI agents to the top of Ethereum’s layer-2 ladder before turning inward to rebuild its core stack. Base will transition to a unified, internally maintained stack, expected to be its biggest architectural shift since launch. After debuting in 2023 as a rollup built on Optimism’s OP Stack, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 is now consolidating its software into an in-house distribution, which can unlock faster upgrades and greater autonomy over its technical roadmap. It has been three years since Base launched its testnet. The network has experienced SocialFi explosions and ridden its own memecoin wave. It even went through a phase that both fascinated and unnerved Crypto Twitter as AI agents began transacting on its chain. Read more

The Base engineering team said the protocol would remain open-source and encouraged developers to continue building unique implementations. Base, a decentralized Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, said Wednesday that it is transitioning from running on L2 blockchain protocol Optimism’s tech stack to running on its own, unified software architecture. Launched in 2023 as an Optimism chain, Base is shifting to its own tech stack to reduce dependencies on external service providers and shorten the time it takes to ship new upgrades, according to an announcement from Base. The team said: The transition is also expected to simplify the Base network’s sequencer, which helps network validators to order transactions, the Base engineering team said.  Read more

Base launched in 2023 and quickly became one of the most widely used Ethereum layer-2 networks.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has signaled a fundamental shift in the blockchain’s roadmap that declares the era of the “branded shard” effectively over. On Feb. 3, Buterin argued that the industry’s previous “rollup-centric” vision no longer makes sense, citing faster scaling on the main Ethereum layer and the sluggish pace of decentralization among major rollups. […] The post Vitalik Buterin takes shot at Coinbase’s corporate control of Base which dominates 60% of layer 2 income appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Base’s Jesse Pollak says L2s can’t be “Ethereum but cheaper” as builders respond to Vitalik Buterin’s call for specialization. Several layer-2 builders responded after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the original vision of L2s as the primary scaling engine “no longer makes sense,” calling for a shift toward specialization. In a Wednesday post, Buterin argued that many L2s have failed to fully inherit Ethereum’s security due to continued reliance on multisig bridges, while the base layer is increasingly capable of handling more throughput via gas-limit increases and future native rollups. The comments prompted responses from Ethereum layer 2s, who broadly agreed that rollups must evolve beyond being cheaper versions of Ethereum but diverged on whether scaling should remain central to their role. Read more

Base is rolling out month-long infrastructure upgrades aimed at preventing future transaction delays and improving overall network reliability. Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base said recent slow or missing transactions were caused by a configuration error that has been fixed. Over the weekend, Base users experienced elevated transaction drops and delays in getting transactions included onchain. Despite the slowdown, blocks continued to be produced and the network remained operational, suggesting that the incident didn’t cause a full outage. In a Wednesday post on X, Base explained that a change to transaction propagation led the block builder to repeatedly fetch transactions that could not be executed as base fees climbed quickly. Read more

Onchain asset manager Maple is taking syrupUSDC to Coinbase’s Base network, adding institutional credit rails while pursuing Aave's Base instance next. Onchain asset manager Maple is extending its yield-bearing US dollar token, syrupUSDC, to Coinbase’s Base network, plugging institutional credit directly into a fast‑growing Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem. According to a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph, the launch will provide the company with a “direct path” to Coinbase’s broader ecosystem of users and products, while making institutional-grade yield available to a wider base of onchain users, rather than keeping it siloed on the Ethereum mainnet. An Aave governance proposal is also currently live to onboard syrupUSDC as collateral on the Aave V3 Base Instance, if the vote passes. Read more

Coinbase's "everything exchange" includes an all-in-one platform as competition intensifies among crypto firms chasing the super app model. Coinbase intends to prioritize stablecoins, its Ethereum layer-2 Base and building out its exchange products past cryptocurrencies throughout 2026, according to CEO Brian Armstrong. In a New Year’s social media post Armstrong reaffirmed Coinbase’s “everything exchange” strategy, which includes products like prediction markets, equities and commodities. At its year-end conference in December, Coinbase launched stock trading and prediction markets as part of its push. The company has also rebranded its wallet app as an “everything app,” adding social networking and onchain features. Read more

Base’s push into creator coins is facing mounting criticism from traders and builders after Nick Shirley’s token on Zora spiked to about a $9 million valuation and then promptly slumped. Coinbase and its Ethereum layer-2 Base are drawing pushback from traders and builders who argue that its creator token experiment failed to turn a viral social media moment into sustained onchain activity. The backlash came after YouTuber Nick Shirley launched a token on creator platform Zora. Shirley’s token briefly rode his online fame to about a $9 million fully diluted value before sliding to $3 million. Most of the volume came from existing traders rather than new users. In a widely shared critique, trader and content creator notthreadguy argued that if Shirley couldn’t make the model work, nobody could.  Read more

Builders on Base are pushing back against the network’s close alignment with Zora, arguing the creator-coin narrative sidelines established projects.

Base launched a bridge to Solana on Dec. 4, and within hours, Solana’s most vocal builders accused Jesse Pollak of running a vampire attack disguised as interoperability. The bridge uses Chainlink CCIP and Coinbase infrastructure to let users move assets between Base and Solana, with early integrations in Zora, Aerodrome, Virtuals, Flaunch, and Relay. These […] The post Is Base’s Solana bridge a ‘vampire attack’ on SOL liquidity or multichain pragmatism? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Aerodrome Finance confirmed a DNS hijacking attack compromised its primary domains, forcing the Base DEX to redirect users to decentralized ENS mirrors while investigating phishing attempts that targeted multiple assets through malicious approval requests. The post Base’s Top DEX Aerodrome Hit by a Suspected Frontend Security Breach appeared first on Cryptonews.