A meme coin trading frenzy resulted in an influx of funds sent to the Layer 2 network, which currently cannot be bridged back to the ETH mainnet.

The Total Value Locked in Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base surged to $60.58 million on Sunday, representing an increase of more than 6000% over 24 hours. Data from Dune shows that 34,094 ETH was bridged to the network despite the fact that an easy UI functionality to withdraw funds is yet to be implemented. 

According to L2 Beat, transactions on Base have surpassed 2.21 million. Much of this activity was attributed to the rise of a new meme coin called BALD, which saw its value increase 100-fold within a few hours of its deployment on Base.

Someone turned $500 into $1 Million on Base…

How? By gambling on a Memecoin that mocks the bald head of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Is Base about to turn into the next Blockchain for crypto degenerates?https://t.co/1u3if1Gq2V

— Crypto in Black (@thehiddenmaze) July 30, 2023

Some market participants speculated that BALD may have been introduced by a Coinbase insider, with on-chain dating pointing to the contract’s deployer holding 49% of cbETH, Coinbase’s variant of staked ETH.

can verify herehttps://t.co/1XIsWdP5vY

— Kuro (@KuroXLB) July 30, 2023

These 4 addresses withdrew 0.5 $ETH from #Bybit at the same time, cross-chained to the Base network, and bought $BALD within 4 mins of $BALD starting trading.

Probably the same person and probably an insider. pic.twitter.com/8dP25xuG7z

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 30, 2023

“Adding further intrigue to the mix is the substantial liquidity infused into the coin, currently amounting to an impressive $30M. Such an infusion has drawn considerable attention as it indicates a well-coordinated effort and hints at potential institutional backing,” noted crypto investor “Axel Bitblaze.”

The primary trading venue on Base is the decentralized exchange (DEX) LeetSwap, which recorded $242 million worth of volume in the last day through 540,000 transactions, according to data from Dex Screener. 

Although more than half the DEX’s trading volume consisted of BALD transactions, traders also moved considerable amounts of TOSHI, BASED, BRIAN and COIN tokens.