TLDR
- The Base network experienced a nearly two-hour shutdown on Thursday triggered by a consensus malfunction
- Block creation stopped after an invalid block entered the sequence
- Normal block production resumed around 6 pm UTC, with infrastructure across the ecosystem returning to regular sync
- Jesse Pollack, Base’s creator, verified that all user assets remained secure throughout the incident
- The downtime occurred just before the Beryl network upgrade, which was implemented successfully later that evening
The Base blockchain, a prominent Ethereum layer-2 solution backed by Coinbase, suffered a nearly two-hour outage on Thursday when a consensus malfunction resulted in an invalid block entering the sequence, bringing all transaction processing to a standstill.
The initial warning appeared at 4:03 pm UTC when Base’s monitoring dashboard indicated block production had become “unhealthy.” The development team pinpointed the root cause by 5:21 pm UTC: a consensus breakdown that allowed an invalid block to be sequenced, subsequently blocking the creation of any additional blocks.
Normal operations were restored shortly before 6 pm UTC, with Base announcing that blocks were “being produced normally” and confirming that infrastructure throughout the ecosystem had successfully resynced. The organization promised to release a comprehensive incident analysis.
Node operators received guidance to reboot their Base nodes to ensure proper synchronization. The team verified that internal nodes were syncing correctly after the recovery.
Assets Secure as Investigation Continues
Jesse Pollack, the founder of Base, took to X to assure the community that all assets on the platform remained completely safe during the entire outage period. He admitted the service interruption was unacceptable and committed to using this experience to strengthen Base’s reliability as a platform for “global, 24/7 finance.”
Base has yet to reveal the complete explanation for how the invalid block occurred, including whether it resulted from a code defect or another form of consensus breakdown. A detailed post-mortem report is forthcoming.
This marks the second outage for Base. The platform previously went down in August 2025 for approximately 33 minutes. Thursday’s incident represented a significantly longer disruption, extending close to the two-hour mark.
Beryl Network Upgrade Proceeds Following Recovery
The service disruption happened only hours before Base’s scheduled Beryl network upgrade, originally planned for 6 pm UTC. The implementation proceeded as intended and concluded around 8 pm UTC.
Beryl was designed to decrease withdrawal waiting periods on the platform and introduce an innovative token standard tailored for real-world assets and stablecoins.
The two incidents appeared unrelated. Base has not suggested any connection between the Beryl upgrade and the earlier outage.
Base currently ranks as the highest-traffic Ethereum layer-2 solution. Thursday’s downtime represented an unusual occurrence for a blockchain platform of this magnitude.
The layer-1 network Sui encountered two consecutive outages during back-to-back days in May, both triggered by network updates that carried a recognized low probability of causing a system halt.
Base’s development team stated it would maintain close surveillance of network performance and provide additional updates as their investigation progresses.
The successful implementation of the Beryl upgrade later that same evening signaled the network’s return to standard functionality.
