Welcome to Morpher on Base
Starting in May 2025, Morpher runs on Base, a fast and secure Layer-2 blockchain. Base is an Ethereum network, built by Coinbase. It offers fast and secure blockchain transactions with very low fees.
See the Migrating to Base guide for help with migrating your existing account to Base.
Back in 2020, we launched Morpher on a custom Plasma sidechain. It was an Ethereum based blockchain with Proof-of-Authority consensus, merkle root syncing with Ethereum mainnet, super fast 1 second block times, and completely free gas tokens. This immediately allowed us to scale to thousands of transactions per second. And the results were clear, Morpher was processing over 1 million trades by the time synthetic market protocols were barely reaching 1,000 trades.
This was a great solution for solving the biggest problems we saw with DeFi. We gave our users free and lightning-fast trades. No gas required! This was a huge win for users, at a time when Ethereum congestion was a real pain point. A pain point that would continue for several years (before Layer-2 chains entered the scene, and the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake upgrade). However, this required us to build and maintain our own Ethereum L2 chain. As well as introducing its own frictions, like bridging and leaving all our activity off Dapp trackers.
It turned out that our own homegrown solution, was very similar to the Layer-2 chains that appeared later (like Polygon and Base). The way to solve the biggest annoyances of blockchain Dapps, especially in DeFi, started converging. As the ecosystem around DeFi and Ethereum matured, we no longer saw a unique advantage to maintaining our own blockchain. More importantly, moving to a public blockchain would offer distinct advantages: greater decentralization and greater integration with the rest of DeFi. Moving to Base is an important step in joining the maturing DeFi ecosystem and continuing to grow with it.
Gas was the last hurdle for great trading experiences on blockchains. Both the fact that users needed to have gas tokens, and the gas fees themselves. Gas tokens were always necessary for the operation of successful public blockchains. Base uses ETH gas tokens as well. With the magic of Smart Wallets and Account Abstraction, however, gasless transactions are now possible. No ETH tokens required by the user to execute their Morpher trade. And so the move to another chain was finally possible.
From the beginning we wanted to remove the middlemen from finance, bring maximum transparency to finance, give users full control over their banking, drive fees towards zero, and make trading delightfully simple. All of these values are strengthened by the move to Base.
Trade any market with ETH or USDC, go from USDC to TSLA position
Seamless Coinbase deposits and withdrawals
Lightning-fast trading on a public blockchain
Gasless transactions with super low fees
Easy token swaps, Uniswap ETH & USDC support built-in
Transfer MPH directly, without bridging
Full support for DeFi and Smart Wallets
Bring your own wallet with Coinbase, Metamask, and WalletConnect for everything else
With Base, your trades are executed directly on a trusted and well-maintained blockchain. It's ideal for transparency and avoiding middlemen. You have full control, with the ability to swap and transfer with ease, and use any wallet (no custom RPC required). Moreover, gasless trading, super low gas fees, and fast block times means trading remains delightfully simple.
In June 2025, we are inviting our 250k traders to migrate to Base. This will happen gradually. We worked hard to design a seamless migration process that can perfectly recreate balances, positions, and stakes on Base. The whole process takes less than 10 seconds!
We are also adding direct On-Ramps and Off-ramps for Coinbase, making it easier than ever to move your crypto around. We'll continue to explore how we can make the onramps even better. Finally, being on Base means we can work directly with DeFi projects, including adding our markets directly into new wallets and even mini-apps on Farcaster. Lots of exciting projects ahead!
See the Migrating to Base guide for help with migrating your existing account to Base.
See the Migrating to Base guide for help with migrating your existing account to Base.
Why We Moved to Base
Back in 2020, we launched Morpher on a custom Plasma sidechain. It was an Ethereum based blockchain with Proof-of-Authority consensus, merkle root syncing with Ethereum mainnet, super fast 1 second block times, and completely free gas tokens. This immediately allowed us to scale to thousands of transactions per second. And the results were clear, Morpher was processing over 1 million trades by the time synthetic market protocols were barely reaching 1,000 trades.
This was a great solution for solving the biggest problems we saw with DeFi. We gave our users free and lightning-fast trades. No gas required! This was a huge win for users, at a time when Ethereum congestion was a real pain point. A pain point that would continue for several years (before Layer-2 chains entered the scene, and the Ethereum Proof-of-Stake upgrade). However, this required us to build and maintain our own Ethereum L2 chain. As well as introducing its own frictions, like bridging and leaving all our activity off Dapp trackers.
It turned out that our own homegrown solution, was very similar to the Layer-2 chains that appeared later (like Polygon and Base). The way to solve the biggest annoyances of blockchain Dapps, especially in DeFi, started converging. As the ecosystem around DeFi and Ethereum matured, we no longer saw a unique advantage to maintaining our own blockchain. More importantly, moving to a public blockchain would offer distinct advantages: greater decentralization and greater integration with the rest of DeFi. Moving to Base is an important step in joining the maturing DeFi ecosystem and continuing to grow with it.
Gas was the last hurdle for great trading experiences on blockchains. Both the fact that users needed to have gas tokens, and the gas fees themselves. Gas tokens were always necessary for the operation of successful public blockchains. Base uses ETH gas tokens as well. With the magic of Smart Wallets and Account Abstraction, however, gasless transactions are now possible. No ETH tokens required by the user to execute their Morpher trade. And so the move to another chain was finally possible.
From the beginning we wanted to remove the middlemen from finance, bring maximum transparency to finance, give users full control over their banking, drive fees towards zero, and make trading delightfully simple. All of these values are strengthened by the move to Base.
The Benefits of Trading on Base
Trade any market with ETH or USDC, go from USDC to TSLA position
Seamless Coinbase deposits and withdrawals
Lightning-fast trading on a public blockchain
Gasless transactions with super low fees
Easy token swaps, Uniswap ETH & USDC support built-in
Transfer MPH directly, without bridging
Full support for DeFi and Smart Wallets
Bring your own wallet with Coinbase, Metamask, and WalletConnect for everything else
With Base, your trades are executed directly on a trusted and well-maintained blockchain. It's ideal for transparency and avoiding middlemen. You have full control, with the ability to swap and transfer with ease, and use any wallet (no custom RPC required). Moreover, gasless trading, super low gas fees, and fast block times means trading remains delightfully simple.
What's Next
In June 2025, we are inviting our 250k traders to migrate to Base. This will happen gradually. We worked hard to design a seamless migration process that can perfectly recreate balances, positions, and stakes on Base. The whole process takes less than 10 seconds!
We are also adding direct On-Ramps and Off-ramps for Coinbase, making it easier than ever to move your crypto around. We'll continue to explore how we can make the onramps even better. Finally, being on Base means we can work directly with DeFi projects, including adding our markets directly into new wallets and even mini-apps on Farcaster. Lots of exciting projects ahead!
See the Migrating to Base guide for help with migrating your existing account to Base.
Updated on: 17/06/2025
Thank you!