Solana and Ethereum Network Base Are Now Connected Thanks to Coinbase and Chainlink

Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base can now incorporate SOL and other Solana assets thanks to a new bridge between the two networks.

The Base-Solana bridge, secured by Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and major crypto exchange Coinbase, allows users to move assets seamlessly across the Base and Solana ecosystems. 

“To build a global economy, we need to make it interoperable and connected; and being a bridge, not an island, has been a core value of Base since day one,” the Coinbase-launched network’s team wrote in a blog post.

“If we want to bring the world on-chain, we need to make it dead simple for people to move assets at the speed of the internet, discover new apps no matter which chain they’re built on, and unlock value wherever it exists,” the post continued.

The bridge will allow users to migrate and trade assets from both ecosystems, and is already live in popular Base applications like token launchpad Zora and Aerodrome, the layer-2 network’s largest decentralized exchange (or DEX). 

Other apps can implement the open-source bridge in their builds, thereby allowing users to trade Solana or Base assets regardless of which network they are using. 

“This is a major step towards our goal for Base to serve as a hub for the everything economy: every asset, across every network, at any time, and Solana is just the beginning,” reads the Base announcement.

First launched in 2023, Base has grown to become the fifth-largest blockchain by bridged total value locked, or TVL, a metric that calculates the value of all the tokens on a blockchain. The network has seen nearly a 5% TVL boost in the last week according to data from DefiLlama, now sitting at $14.89 billion while Solana boasts $29.4 billion. 

In September, Coinbase executive and Base head Jesse Pollak relented on long-held speculation that the network would eventually launch its own token, saying that the company is in fact exploring the launch of a Base token—though no plans are definitive.