Jack Paul 
The Ethereum layer 2 network from Coinbase now ranks second in DeFi by total value locked, according to market data. A post on X put Base at $5.76 billion when it moved past Solana. The change first appeared around October 10, 2026, and Base has held the lead since then.
The gap on November 10
By November 10, 2026, research data showed Base at about $5.664 billion in TVL. That was down 1.24% over 24 hours. Solana stood at roughly $4.989 billion, down 2.08% in the same window. The daily move is small. The longer trend is more telling.
Base TVL climbed about 28% year to date through early November. Solana fell about 36% over the same stretch. That split explains why the crossover has lasted, rather than looking like a brief flicker.
Why Base moved up
Base has benefited from deposits into lending protocols, stronger stablecoin use, and support from Coinbase’s wider platform. Lending platforms have drawn fresh money, and those deposits show up directly in TVL. Stablecoin activity has also helped keep balances on the chain.
Solana’s pullback has been tied to lower asset prices and net outflows. That does not mean the network is idle. Solana still beats Base in several areas, including trading volume and user engagement in some segments. TVL measures money sitting in protocols. Volume measures how busy a chain is. They are related, but not the same.
History and limits
The October move marked the first sustained period since 2023 when an Ethereum layer 2 outranked Solana on TVL. Base now sits above both BNB Chain and Solana. It still trails Ethereum by a wide margin. Ethereum holds more than $41 billion in TVL, over seven times Base’s total.
I think the ranking matters, but it is not the whole scoreboard. A chain can have deep liquidity and still lose activity if yields fall. It can also have heavy volume without holding large balances. For now, Base has the larger pot of parked capital. Solana has room to recover if prices steady and outflows slow. The next few months should show whether this is a lasting shift, or perhaps just a period of weakness on one side.