Base Overtakes Ethereum, BNB Chain in DEX Volumes for the First Time

Base’s decentralized exchange (DEX) activity surged this week, pushing the chain past Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain (BSC) in weekly DEX volume for the first time.

As of today, Jan. 22, DefiLlama data shows that Base’s seven-day DEX volume jumped to roughly $16.5 billion. Ethereum logged about $13.0 billion and BSC around $15.6 billion for the same period.

Weekly DEX volume by blockchain. Source: DefiLlama

Solana remained the largest DEX market by trading volume across all timeframes, with more than $26.6 billion in the past seven days, well ahead of the pack.

DEX volume on Base. Source: DefiLlama

On Base, two protocols drove most of the trading activity. Uniswap’s Base deployment and Aerodrome together accounted for the lion’s share of volumes, with Uniswap showing $11.3 billion in DEX volume and Aerodrome reporting $2.94 billion over the past week.

Gaming on Base?

While it’s unclear what exactly sparked the recent trading surge, it came the same week as a prominent Base gaming protocol, FootballFun, launched its native token, FUN. The football-themed gaming protocol is backed by Coinbase Ventures via the Base Ecosystem Fund and launched on Coinbase’s Layer 2 back in August. The protocol has see a few million dollars in weekly trading volumes since launching, and is currently the largest Base gaming protocol by volumes.

FootballFun has also recently been promoted multiple times on X by Base and its lead Jesse Pollak.

On the project’s token launch day, the team announced a 20 million FUN airdrop and added liquidity rewards, which may have also fueled short-term speculative trading and liquidity rotation onto Base.

FUN/USDC trading pair since TGE. Source: DEX Screener

However, despite the early buzz, FUN has since slid and was trading nearly 7% below its TGE price at press time, according to DEXScreener data.