This week on Base: record $243M card spend, $4B in tokenized stock trading and new USDC accounts

Two records: card spend and tokenized stocks

Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase, published its weekly recap on 31 October 2026 as an X Article titled “This Week on Base: Grants, Denim, and more”. The two numbers that stand out are about everyday use rather than speculation. According to Base, card spend volume settled on Base hit a new record of $243M in October, up 80% from March.

“Card spend settled on Base” means card payments whose settlement, the step where money actually moves between the parties, runs over the Base network, typically in a stablecoin such as USDC. The person paying at a till still sees an ordinary card payment. Base does not name the card programmes behind the figure in the recap, so the $243M is a network-wide total, not one company’s result.

The second milestone is trading. Base says Coinbase Tokenized Stocks on Base crossed $4B in all-time DEX trading volume. A tokenized stock is a token on the blockchain that tracks the price of a listed share, and a DEX is a decentralized exchange where people swap tokens from their own wallets. The recap shows how quickly other apps are building on these tokens: hey listed 218 tokenized stocks on Base to buy and sell with 0% fees, IPOR’s stock vaults passed $3,000,000 in deposits from 500 wallets, Surf extended its coverage to tokenized stocks, and Exa now lets users back their Exa Card credit with Coinbase Tokenized Stocks.

New ways to hold and receive USDC

Several launches in the recap turn USDC on Base into something closer to a bank account. OnePay added direct USDC deposits to checking balances, which Base says can be used for bills and transfers. Grow introduced Global Accounts on Base with USD, EUR and GBP receiving accounts in more than 100 countries, and Peer opened an Alipay beta that lets users get USDC against CNY payments.

For savings, Bitso added “Bóvedas” on Base, a DeFi option on MXNB, its Mexican peso stablecoin, and USDC through Morpho vaults curated by Gauntlet. A curated vault is a pool where a risk manager chooses which lending markets the deposits go into. Returns in such vaults are not guaranteed, and Base’s recap gives no rates. Zyfai also added direct supply to Morpho markets, and Tenor introduced a portfolio view for Morpho positions.

On the institutional side, FalconX brought its USDC credit facility to Base, letting lenders deposit native USDC for returns from institutional credit, and Ripple brought its RLUSD stablecoin to Base with liquidity. Exchange.news covered both launches earlier this week. Base also says Y Combinator made a $500K investment in Mocha, paid in USDC on Base, and that YC launched a new Crypto Request for Startups covering AI, capital raising, stablecoins, trading and agents.

If you want to try these apps yourself, you need a self-custody wallet on Base. The Base app is Coinbase’s own wallet for the network, and Phantom also supports Base alongside Solana. Whichever you use, check that Base is selected as the network before you receive USDC, because sending it on the wrong network is one of the most common ways to lose funds.

Grants, Denim and the rest of the list

The headline items in the recap’s title were announced earlier in the week. Base’s Builder, Creator and Trencher grants support projects, creators and communities on Base with up to $5,000, and Denim, Base’s fourth network upgrade of 2026, is live on the Base Sepolia testnet with mainnet set for 5 November. Exchange.news has separate articles on the grant programmes and on Denim.

The rest of the launch list covers AI, trading and games. Coinbase Developer Platform brought Coinbase for Agents to Hermes by Nous Research, with persistent memory and scheduled portfolio briefings. OpenServ joined the Base Builder Stack with SERV Reasoning for AI agents and free inference credits, and Moneda launched Moneda AI, which Base says provides research from filings and live prices with in-app investing. Toros brought options for BTC, ETH and more with tokenized positions, and Flash brought FlashV3 with limit orders through a Uniswap hook and tokenized perps.

Base also lists Pantheon’s partnership with Zora, which distributes ZORA to creator vaults; basecat reaching 40K holders as the third most traded B20 token; baibai leading DEX volume among PropAMMs; Remix’s “The Missing Bitcoin” treasure hunt with a $150K prize pool; DYLI’s refreshed pack experience; PixieChess packs returning with weekly releases; and Setz passing 2,000 spins on its GACHA machine. The recap does not say which countries can use each product, so check each app’s own terms before you deposit, and remember that leveraged and options products can lose more than you expect.