Base restores stability after January congestion and transaction drops

Base restored network stability after a misconfigured transaction propagation change caused January congestion, drops, and delays; a month-long pipeline fix is planned.

Summary

• Base saw elevated congestion, delays, and dropped transactions from Jan. 31 after a transaction propagation configuration change mis-handled rising base fees.​
• Rolling back the change restored stability, but Base warned that intermittent congestion can still cause delays while it prepares a full root-cause postmortem.​
• Over the next month, Base plans to streamline its transaction pipeline, tune mempool queues, and improve alerting and change monitoring to avoid similar incidents.​

Base, the Ethereum Layer-2 network backed by Coinbase, restored network stability following transaction delays and elevated transaction drops that affected users in late January, according to a network status update.

Base returns have incident

The incident began on Jan. 31, when Base experienced periods of increased congestion that resulted in submitted transactions being delayed or dropped. Blocks continued to be produced throughout the disruption, but users experienced higher-than-usual latency for transaction confirmation, the network stated.

The issue stemmed from an infrastructure configuration change related to transaction propagation, Base confirmed. A configuration adjustment caused the block builder to repeatedly fetch transactions that could not be executed due to rapidly rising base fees, according to the network. Transactions were reprocessed inefficiently, leading to elevated drops and delays in transaction inclusion during peak congestion. The propagation change created a feedback loop in the transaction pipeline under volatile fee conditions, the network reported.

Base mitigated the issue by rolling back the configuration change, which restored normal transaction processing, according to the status update. The team validated that the rollback successfully restored overall network stability, while noting that intermittent congestion may still occasionally result in delays. A full root cause analysis and public postmortem are planned, the network stated.

To prevent similar disruptions, Base said it will optimize the transaction pipeline by removing peer-to-peer overhead and tuning mempool queue behavior to improve transaction inclusion under stress. The work is expected to take approximately one month, according to the network. Base also plans to improve alerting systems and change monitoring processes to detect transaction propagation issues earlier and respond more quickly.

Base encouraged users and developers to follow updates through its official status page, the network stated.