Base, the Ethereum layer-2 blockchain developed by crypto exchange Coinbase, resumed normal block production on June 26 after suffering a nearly two-hour outage. The disruption was triggered by a consensus problem that prevented new blocks from being created.
According to the project's status page, the network began experiencing unhealthy block production at 4:03 PM UTC. By 5:21 PM UTC, the team identified a consensus issue caused by an invalid block being sequenced, which halted further block creation. Base confirmed recovery of healthy block production shortly before 6 PM UTC, noting that ecosystem-wide infrastructure was able to sync.
Base creator Jesse Pollack stated that all funds on the network remained safe, but emphasized that a halt is not acceptable. The team plans to conduct a root cause investigation and publish a post-mortem.
The outage occurred hours before a scheduled upgrade for Base, named Beryl, which was originally set for 6 PM UTC. The upgrade proceeded as planned and was completed by 8 PM UTC, aiming to reduce withdrawal delays and introduce a new token standard for real-world assets and stablecoins.
Incidents of downtime are rare for major blockchains like Base, which is the most used Ethereum layer-2 network. Its last significant outage was in August 2025, lasting 33 minutes. In May 2026, layer-1 network Sui also experienced two consecutive days of downtime due to a network update.
Base’s team said it would investigate the root cause of the consensus issue and share a full analysis. The network has since returned to normal operation.