Ethereum layer-2 network Base stopped producing blocks for more than two hours, according to Decrypt. The outage hit the network ahead of a scheduled upgrade.
Base, which runs on Coinbase infrastructure, depends on a single sequencer to order and batch transactions before posting them to Ethereum. That design choice trades decentralization for speed and cost. When the sequencer encounters a fault, the entire network halts until it recovers or the team intervenes.
No details emerged about what triggered the block production failure. The network came back online after the issue was resolved, though the exact nature of the fault was not disclosed by the team.
Outages of this kind expose a structural vulnerability in centralized sequencer designs. Base is not alone. Other layer-2 networks relying on a single sequencer have faced similar stalls. Users lose transaction finality during the blackout. Funds themselves remain secure because the underlying Ethereum chain never stops, but trading, bridging, and other time-sensitive operations grind to a halt.
Coinbase has signaled plans to decentralize Base's sequencer over time, though no timeline has been set. Until then, the network carries the operational risk of depending on a single point of failure. The two-hour downtime is a reminder that layer-2 speed improvements come with infrastructure tradeoffs that still need to be resolved.