Coinbase's Base Now Holds More DeFi Money Than Solana. Is Ethereum Winning Back Ground From Solana? - 24/7 Wall St.

The milestone occurred on November 7, 2026, when Base's total value locked reached $5.82 billion, surpassing Solana's $5.24 billion by $580 million. This represents an 11% lead for Base, which is a layer-2 network built on Ethereum and operated by Coinbase. Despite this significant shift in DeFi deposits, neither Ethereum's nor Solana's prices have reacted strongly to the change.

Ethereum (ETH) currently trades at $2,232, up just 0.2% in the past 24 hours, while Solana (SOL) trades at $89.59, down 0.4%. Ethereum still maintains the top spot in DeFiLlama's rankings with $43.51 billion in total value locked, far ahead of both Base and Solana.

Base's Monetization Strategy

Unlike many blockchain networks, Base has no native token. Instead, Coinbase earns sequencer fees—charges for ordering and processing transactions on Base. These fees are paid in ETH, creating a direct link between Base's growth and Ethereum's ecosystem. On Coinbase's October 29 earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas noted that "sequencer fees are the most direct monetization point for tokenized equities today."

Base represents a significant part of Coinbase's business, with its subscription and services revenue making up roughly 49% of total net revenues in the third quarter. The company holds more than 80 licenses globally and reports $377 billion in assets on its platform. Coinbase markets Base as the leading layer-2 network for spot crypto trading and DeFi TVL, utilizing it for tokenized stocks, payments, AI agents, and its Borrow/Lend product.

Different Network Purposes

The comparison between Base and Solana highlights fundamental differences in how these networks operate and what they measure. A large portion of Base's deposits goes into lending apps like Morpho and Aave, where funds are often locked for weeks or months. In contrast, Solana's ecosystem focuses on fast trading and memecoins, with money moving quickly through decentralized exchanges rather than staying locked in place.

Solana has continued to prioritize speed with its Alpenglow upgrade, which went live on October 21 and targets finality of about 150 milliseconds. This benefits traders but doesn't necessarily increase total value locked. TVL rankings can also be misleading as they fluctuate with the dollar value of tokens within them. Over the past 30 days, SOL fell 18.2%, while ETH dropped only 9.7%, which partially explains Base's lead.

Price Disconnect

Despite Base's growth and Ethereum's position as the underlying layer, ETH's price hasn't reflected this development. Ethereum trades about 54.9% below its all-time high of $4,946 from August 2025, while Solana is down 69.5% from its peak of $293.31 in January 2025. Both cryptocurrencies have declined significantly in 2026, with ETH down 24.9% and SOL down 28.1% year to date.

While some value flows back to ETH through gas fees and Base's payments to Ethereum for transaction data, Coinbase retains the sequencer profits. This means that lending a dollar of USDC on Base doesn't require anyone to purchase ETH, limiting the direct benefit to ETH holders. ETF flows for both coins have been mixed, with Ethereum ETFs taking in $53 million on November 4 but losing $365.3 million for the week, while Solana ETFs lost $25.1 million on November 6.

Both coins currently trade just above their 200-day moving averages ($2,156 for ETH and $88.98 for SOL) but below their 50-day averages ($2,499 and $108.16), indicating sellers have controlled the past month. The key test for Solana will be whether it can climb back above its $108.16 50-day average while its TVL still trails Base. This would help determine whether the shift represents a fundamental change in market sentiment or just a temporary fluctuation.