CLO Coinbase declares Base "not an exchange" amid SEC's close scrutiny.

Coinbase is defending the Ethereum Layer-2 Base network against legal debates from the SEC. Legal director Paul Grewal asserts that Base is merely a blockchain infrastructure, not a securities exchange, as the matching of orders occurs within the applications built on top, such as AMM or order books, rather than at the Layer-2 level. He warns that if Base is viewed as an exchange, the compliance burden will hinder innovation.

This view is supported by Ripple CTO David Schwartz, who compares Layer-2 to AWS – providing infrastructure but not being an exchange. Vitalik Buterin also praised Base for combining Ethereum's security with a better experience.

At the BaseCamp 2025 event, Coinbase revealed that it is considering launching its own token, while also announcing a bridge to Solana. Currently, Base records a TVL of $4.83 billion, nearly $20 billion in bridge liquidity, and a daily DeFi trading volume of approximately $3 billion, quickly rising to become a prominent Layer-2 ecosystem.