Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase, experienced a 2.5-hour block production outage on Thursday, June 25. The issue began around noon ET, just hours before a scheduled upgrade. Base posted on X at 12:20 p.m. ET that mainnet was halted due to a block production issue, assuring funds were secure. By 1:00 p.m. ET, the team isolated a consensus problem causing an invalid block to be sequenced, which prevented new blocks. At around 2:30 p.m. ET, block sequencing resumed normally, though the root cause was still under investigation. This is the first block production outage in 90 days, though the network experienced 30-hour withdrawal delays in May. The outage occurred during the Beryl hardfork upgrade, which aims to implement a new stablecoin and real-world asset token standard while reducing withdrawal delays. Blockchain outages, while uncommon, have affected other networks like Sui and Solana. Base's recovery was underway with nodes restarting and syncing.

Key facts

• Base mainnet halted for over 2 hours due to block production issue on June 25.
• Consensus problem caused an invalid block to be sequenced, stopping new blocks.
• Funds were secure; block sequencing resumed by 2:30 p.m. ET.
• First block production outage in 90 days; May had 30-hour withdrawal delays.
• Beryl hardfork upgrade ongoing to improve stablecoin standards and reduce delays.

KeyAudit data perspective