Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base is stepping away from deep reliance on Optimism’s OP Stack, announcing it will migrate to a “unified, Base-operated stack” that consolidates its core infrastructure under one codebase.

Base, which launched in 2023 and now has roughly $3.85 billion in total value locked, said the shift is meant to reduce coordination overhead and speed up upgrades. Node operators will eventually need to migrate to Base’s new client ahead of upcoming hard forks, including Base V1.

The move rattled markets, with the OP token sliding after the news. Base is by far the largest chain in Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem, so Optimism could lose a significant share of activity and revenue.

But Jing Wang, CEO of OP Labs and co-founder of Optimism, pushed back on the narrative. She noted that the “Unified Base Stack” still shares 99% of its code with the OP Stack and related infrastructure like Reth and Flashbots.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

“If you want the most scalable, highest reliability, and most production-hardened stack, that’s the OP Stack,” she wrote.

Wang framed the fork not as a breakup, but as validation. Coinbase is “doubling down on their blockchain,” she said, arguing that more businesses will ultimately deploy their own chains, many still built on OP Stack foundations.