Base Blockchain experienced a 43-minute outage; China shuts down accounts of 80 crypto influencers; USDC launched on Base and OP Mainnet!
Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network Base experienced its first major outage since its launch on 9 August.
For about 43 minutes on 5 September, no new blocks were generated on the main chain. According to Base’s status site, the first outage detected by developers occurred at 21:36 UTC.
“We have detected a delay in block production as some of our internal infrastructure needs to be renewed. We have now applied a fix and are seeing improvement” Coinbase said in a statement on the issue.
Base stated that the problem was detected in a short time and the team applied a fix that provided a “widespread improvement” in block production. Chain monitoring continues for other problems that may occur.
Matt Willemsen, head of research at crypto education platform Collective Shift, discussed the differences in the use of Ethereum’s Layer 2 networks and claimed that they have not been tested as much as the Ethereum main network.
China shuts down accounts of 80 crypto influencers
Sina Weibo, one of China’s most popular social media applications with more than 258 million daily active users, announced the removal of the accounts of 80 influencers supporting cryptocurrencies, citing official legislation.
According to the announcement, 80 crypto influencer accounts with a total of more than 8 million followers were removed by Weibo. The accounts were accused of violating eight separate regulations on telecommunications, finance, banking, online marketing, securities, stock exchanges and internet security due to their role in promoting cryptocurrencies.
The platform has been periodically purging cryptocurrency accounts since China’s cryptocurrency ban took effect in September 2021. In March, Weibo removed 131 accounts linked to crypto and stock trading activities.
One of the largest nationwide crackdowns on the crypto sector took place in August 2022, when the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) removed 12,000 influencer accounts linked to cryptocurrencies on Weibo and Baidu and deleted 51,000 posts. The CAC used the following statements in defense of the decision:
“Our aim is to protect people’s property safety in accordance with the law and remind people to formulate correct investment concepts, develop risk prevention awareness, avoid making exaggerated investments in digital currency trading, and be alert to risks.”
Weibo had also said in the previous enforcement action.
We will continue to increase the crackdown on illegal securities activities existing on the platform and continue to carry out strict work on relevant violations of laws and regulations. We will never show tolerance in this regard.
Since early 2023, China has been cracking down on private crypto-related activities in an effort to protect capital flight, money laundering, and state-run crypto endeavors. Many of these efforts have resulted in financial losses to non-Chinese investors.
USDC launched on Base and OP Mainnet
USDC issuer Circle has expanded the availability of its stablecoin by launching it on Layer 2 networks Base and Op Mainnet.
According to The Block, the company stated that businesses can directly use USDC ramps on Base and OP Mainnet by connecting their accounts to Circle. Previously, bridging over the Ethereum network was required to use USDC on Base and OP Mainnet. This resulted in increased transaction fees.
Base and OP Mainnet are Layer 2 networks designed to scale Ethereum applications. They utilise Optimistic Rollups and are developed using the OP Stack. The total TVL of the networks is said to be over 1 billion.
USDC usage is expanding
USDC supply is just under 25 million on the OP Mainnet, while on-chain data reveals that this number is 19.8 million on Base.
The number of networks where Circle’s stablecoin is available is increasing every day. The asset is currently supported on 11 blockchains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Solana, Polygon, Polkadot and Tron.
