Base batches users' transactions and submits them to Ethereum, paying a share of the transaction fees to Ethereum validators (expense).

Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) offering a secure, low-cost, builder-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build onchain.

Coinbase team owns and governs the protocol. Coinbase is a public company and its investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Vanguard Group, ARK Investment Management, etc.

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Blockchains (L2)

Base

# Base Average transaction fee Methodology

## 1. Overview

The Base average transaction fee metric measures the mean cost per transaction on the Base Layer 2 network, expressed in USD. This metric answers the question "What does it cost on average to execute a transaction on Base?" and is calculated by dividing the total daily transaction fees by the total daily transaction count. The calculation accounts for Base's unique fee structure which includes both L2 execution costs and L1 data availability costs.

## 2. Data sources

The calculation relies on the following raw data sources:

- **Base blockchain transaction records**: Complete transaction data from the Base Layer 2 network including transaction hashes, gas usage, gas prices, and Layer 1 fee components
- **End-of-day ETH price feeds**: Token price data for Ethereum (ETH) used to convert gas fees from ETH to USD, specifically using the WETH contract address `0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2`
- **Token metadata**: Information about the WETH token used for price conversion purposes
- **Chain availability data**: Base network operational status data to ensure consistent time series coverage

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Transaction data processing
- **Purpose**: Extract and standardize raw Base transaction data for fee calculation
- **Logic**: The system processes all Base blockchain transactions, extracting key fields including block timestamps, transaction hashes, sender and recipient addresses, gas usage amounts, gas prices, and Layer 1 specific components. For Base as a Layer 2 solution, transactions include both L2 execution costs and L1 data availability costs. Each transaction record captures `gas_used`, `gas_price` for L2 costs, and `l1_gas_used`, `l1_gas_price`, `l1_fee_scalar` for L1 costs. The data uses Ethereum's WETH token address for price conversion since Base settles on Ethereum.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` for daily aggregation, `transaction_hash` for counting, `gas_used` and `gas_price` for L2 fees, `l1_gas_used`, `l1_gas_price`, and `l1_fee_scalar` for L1 fees

### Component B: Gas fee calculation  
- **Purpose**: Convert raw gas consumption data into ETH-denominated fee amounts
- **Logic**: For each transaction, the system calculates two fee components. L2 gas fees are computed by multiplying `gas_used` by `gas_price` and dividing by 1e18 to convert from wei to ETH. L1 gas fees are calculated by multiplying `l1_gas_used` by `l1_gas_price` and `l1_fee_scalar`, then dividing by 1e18. The total transaction fee is the sum of L2 and L1 components. All calculations are performed at the individual transaction level before aggregation.
- **Key fields**: `l2_gas_fee` (L2 execution cost), `l1_gas_fee` (L1 data availability cost), combined as total `fees` per transaction

### Component C: Daily fee aggregation
- **Purpose**: Sum all transaction fees by calendar day and convert to USD
- **Logic**: The system groups all transactions by calendar day using timestamp truncation and sums the total fees (L1 + L2 components) across all Base network transactions. Fee amounts are converted from ETH to USD using end-of-day price feeds for the WETH token. The conversion uses Token Terminal's standard currency conversion methodology. The result is total daily fees in USD for the entire Base network.
- **Key fields**: `timestamp` (daily), `fees` (total daily fees in USD)

### Component D: Daily transaction count
- **Purpose**: Count the total number of unique transactions per day
- **Logic**: The system counts distinct transaction hashes per calendar day across the entire Base network. This uses approximate count distinct functions for performance on large datasets. The count includes all transaction types and addresses on Base, providing the total daily transaction volume. Transactions are grouped by the same daily timestamp boundaries used for fee aggregation to ensure consistency.
- **Key fields**: `timestamp` (daily), `transaction_count` (distinct daily transactions)

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: The daily fee totals and daily transaction counts are joined on the timestamp field to create matched pairs of fees and transaction volumes for each day
- **Currency conversion**: Gas fees are converted from ETH to USD using end-of-day price feeds before the average calculation is performed
- **Time aggregation**: Both fees and transaction counts use calendar day boundaries with timestamp truncation to ensure consistent daily aggregation
- **Final calculation**: The average transaction fee is calculated by dividing the total daily fees in USD by the total daily transaction count, using safe division to handle any days with zero transactions. The result represents the mean cost per transaction on Base for each day.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Base

Average transaction fee

Average transaction fee

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