Confused on how to bridge your crypto to Base? We'll walk you through the most popular bridging options to transfer ETH to the recently launched layer-2 incubated by Coinbase.
On August 9, the Base mainnet was officially opened to the general public, allowing non-technical users to begin getting to grips with the platform.
Since its launch, the popular Ethereum layer-2 has seen its ecosystem expand considerably. There are now more than 50 protocols operating on the chain — the largest of which (BaseSwap) now has a TVL in excess of $50 million.
In total, Base has a TVL of over $167 million, making it one of the fastest-growing Ethereum L2s and currently the third-largest optimistic rollup based L2 (behind Arbitrum and Optimism).
To get started on the Base chain, you’ll need to bridge ETH to the platform to use as gas. Once your Base wallet is loaded with ETH, you will then be free to begin interacting with the Base ecosystem.
Note: Base does not have a native token. Gas fees are settled in Base native ETH. Click here to learn more about Base chain.
How To Bridge to Base
Before bridging to Base, you’ll first need to add the Base Mainnet RPC details to your wallet client. You can do this by heading to Chainlist, connecting your wallet, and allowing it to add the Base RPC details to your client.
Once your wallet supports the Base network, you’ll be ready to bridge assets to the platform. Though the platform is still new, there are already multiple ways to bridge assets into the ecosystem.
Note: After bridging your assets, you can check your balance directly in your wallet or by searching for your address on a Base mainnet explorer
Here, we’ll cover three of the most popular methods:
Option 1: Using the Official Base Bridge
The official Base bridge is currently by far the most popular way to move assets to and from Base. Right now, the bridge only supports transfers between Ethereum and Base.
First, head over to the Base Bridge website and ensure you’ve selected the ‘Deposit’ option.
From here, click the ‘Connect wallet’ button and select your wallet from the list of available options. Follow the prompts in your wallet to connect it to the bridge.
Once connected, you’re ready to deposit your funds. Select the asset you want to bridge from the drop-down menu and enter the amount you want to move in the ‘Amount’ field.
Here, we’ve selected to bridge 0.5 ETH.
When you’re ready, click the ‘Deposit’ button and confirm the transaction in your connected wallet. You’ll need to pay a gas fee.
Once the deposit has been completed on chain, the asset will then be reflected in your Base chain balance.
Option 2: Use Orbiter Finance
Orbiter is a popular multi-chain bridge specifically designed for layer-2s like Base. The platform also supports more than a dozen other Ethereum L2s, including Optimism, Mantle and zkSync Era.
To get started with Orbiter, head over to the platform and click the ‘Connect a Wallet’ button. Follow the prompts in your wallet to connect it to the platform — this is the wallet that will both send the asset (on the origin chain) and later receive it (on Base chain).
Once connected, select the origin chain in the 'From' section, select Base in the 'To' section, and enter the amount you want to bridge.
Right now, Orbiter only allows you to bridge Ether (ETH), so there is no need to change the asset. Later, Orbiter may add support for other assets.
Here, we've selected to bridge from Ethereum to Base.
Once you’re ready, click the ‘Send’ button. This will pull up an overview of the fees.
If you’re happy, initiate the transfer by clicking the 'Confirm and Send' button. This will open the transaction to your wallet, which you can then confirm.
Once the transaction has been processed, the amount shown in the ‘Received’ section of the confirmation page will be available in your connected wallet on Base chain.
Option 3: Use the Portal Bridge
Portal (powered by Wormhole) is one of the first third-party bridges to support Base transfers. It also supports more than 20 other layer-1 and layer-2 chains.
Note: You should only use the Portal bridge if you already have native ETH in your Base wallet. Since you’ll need to claim your bridged tokens (typically wrapped assets) and pay gas fees on Base to do so.
To get started with Portal, head over to the platform and select the chain you want to bridge your assets from in the source field.
Next, click the ‘Connect’ button and select your wallet from the list of available options. Follow the on-screen prompts to connect the wallet containing the funds you want to bridge.
You can then choose the asset you want to bridge from the ‘Select an asset’ drop-down menu.
After selecting the asset, enter the amount you to bridge in the ‘Amount’ field and click ‘Next’ to progress to the next step.
You’ll then be asked to switch to the Base mainnet in your connected wallet.
Approve the network switch and click the ‘Next’ button. You’ll again be asked to switch the network back to the source network.
You can then click the ‘Transfer’ button to initiate the deposit. Confirm this in your connected wallet, and Portal will track the bridge process and notify you when it is complete.
Once your funds have been successfully bridged, you can progress to the final step where you can redeem your tokens from your connected Base wallet.
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