Coinbase Base Restarts Block Production After 2-Hour Outage

Base, the blockchain developed by Coinbase, has resumed normal operations after an outage that lasted nearly two hours and stemmed from a consensus failure that prevented block production.

Base confirmed on Thursday that its blocks were once again being produced normally and that it had verified recovery across the broader ecosystem following the disruption. The incident was tracked publicly via Base’s status page, which first flagged unhealthy block production before later describing the specific consensus issue.

Key takeaways

• Base reported a near two-hour outage caused by a consensus problem that sequenced an invalid block and stopped new block creation.
• The network later restored “healthy blockbuilding,” and infrastructure across the ecosystem was able to sync again.
• Base said it had identified the issue and would investigate the underlying cause with a full post-mortem.
• The downtime was notable because Base is among the most widely used Ethereum layer-2 networks.
• An upgrade scheduled for shortly after the outage—Beryl—was completed hours later, after the incident.

Outage traced to consensus and invalid block sequencing

Base’s status page reported that the team was investigating “unhealthy” block production at 4:03 pm UTC on Thursday. Less than an hour later, Base said it had isolated a consensus problem in which an invalid block was sequenced. According to the status update, that sequence effectively halted block production, meaning no new blocks could be created during the period.

In a subsequent update just before 6 pm UTC, Base stated that it had recovered healthy blockbuilding, and that ecosystem-wide infrastructure had returned to a synced state. The team added that it had identified the issue and would continue investigating the root cause, promising a full post-mortem.

Base also posted the recovery status on X via its official account, saying blocks were being produced normally and that it had confirmed widespread recovery throughout the ecosystem.

Why Base downtime is noteworthy for Ethereum layer-2 users

While outages can happen across blockchain networks, a disruption of this nature is comparatively rare for major systems—particularly for networks that are heavily relied upon for daily activity. Base is described in the report as one of the most used Ethereum layer-2 networks.

Base previously experienced a significant outage in August 2025, when it went down for 33 minutes, as indicated in a separate incident recorded on its status page. The latest event therefore adds another high-visibility reliability test for users and operators who depend on Base for time-sensitive transactions and on-chain application workflows.

The reporting around the incident also emphasized that Base’s creator, Jesse Pollack, said funds on the network were safe. However, even when assets are not at risk, a halt in block production can affect confirmations, withdrawals, and the overall throughput that applications expect from a live network.

Timing around the Beryl upgrade

According to the report, the downtime appeared to occur separately and just hours ahead of a scheduled Base upgrade known as Beryl. The upgrade was set for 6 pm UTC and was reported as completed at 8 pm UTC, two hours later.

Base’s Beryl update was intended to reduce delays on withdrawals and introduce a new token standard for real-world assets and stablecoins. For users, those changes can directly influence how quickly funds move out of the system and how new tokenized products are represented on-chain. For infrastructure providers, upgrades also increase operational complexity—making it especially important that the network returned to healthy block production before or during the transition.

Wider reliability signals across competing networks

Base’s outage also fits into a broader pattern of occasional block-production stalls across large networks. The report points to Sui, which experienced two separate periods of downtime on back-to-back days in May, each causing a temporary block-production halt. Sui later stated that the downtime resulted from a network update it had assessed as having a low probability of causing a halt.

That detail matters because it highlights a recurring challenge in blockchain operations: even carefully planned upgrades can create unforeseen edge cases. In Base’s case, the immediate cause was described as a consensus problem that prevented block creation, and the team indicated it would investigate the root cause. Readers may want to watch whether Base’s post-mortem explains how the failure relates to network parameters, client behavior, or sequencing logic—and whether similar failure modes could recur.

What to watch next

Base says it has identified the issue and will publish a root-cause analysis. The key follow-up will be how the post-mortem explains the consensus failure and what safeguards are added to prevent invalid block sequencing and restore even more resilient block production—particularly around future upgrades like Beryl.