Base, the Layer 2 network from Coinbase, announced its general access mainnet launch will take place on August 9.

Base said its network will host more than 50 “leading brands, platforms, marketplaces, artists, and creators” at launch, including Coca-Cola, Atari, and OpenSea. The team will also celebrate the launch with its “Onchain Summer” campaign, featuring daily NFT drops for users.

“Base is now open for bridging and Base mainnet will open for everyone and everything on August 9,” Base said. “Our goal is to enable anyone, anywhere to safely and easily participate in the on-chain economy.”

Coinbase will support Base across its products and services from August 9, including Coinbase Wallet, Coinbase Pay, Coinbase NFT, and the Coinbase exchange.

The announcement follows a sudden rush of activity on Base earlier this week after the network opened its doors to developers on July 12. Users have already bridged more than $82M worth of assets onto the network using a technical procedure, with Base telling The Defiant it will deploy front-end interfaces for lay users to their assets onto the network from August 9.

Memecoin Trading

A memecoin trading explosion propelled Base to rank as the 3rd-most active Layer 2 on Monday, processing nearly 7.6 transactions per second (TPS), according to L2Beat.

However, a spate of rug-pulls — including from the network’s top memecoin, BALD — has since driven down activity, with Base now ranking eighth with an average TPS of 2.2 over the past day. LeetSwap, the network’s most popular DEX, also briefly halted trading after losing $625,000 in an exploit on Tuesday, further driving down volume on Base.

OnChain Summer

OnChain Summer is designed to guide users through the Base ecosystem, launching activities highlighting platforms for art, music, gaming, and advocacy.

Base plans to launch four grants rounds offering more than 100 ETH on Prop House, a development incentivization platform, to encourage builders to get started on the network.

Grants will be available to users who deploy a protocol or application on Base, builders using native account abstraction to create new user experiences, and people who make a “one-minute video sharing a story about an on-chain use case or advocating for sensible legislation.”

Base NFT holders can vote to determine who receives the Prop House grants. Base is also offering $125,000 in prizes to users participating in an Aug. 14 to Aug.18 hackathon.

Base said Onchain Summer participants can also earn up to $50 worth of crypto, including through its “quest to get ETH” using Coinbase’s wallet or app — where users can earn enough ETH to support roughly 10 transactions.