Real Creative Commons photo of a physical Ethereum coin for a Base Azul Ethereum layer-2 upgrade story.

Coinbase’s Base Activates Azul, Targets One-Day Withdrawals

By Isaac • May 29, 2026 9:33 pm • Comments

Base activated Azul on mainnet on May 28, 2026 at 18:00 UTC.

Base is Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, and Azul is the first upgrade Base built and shipped on its own.

The headline change is multiproofs. Base now runs both a TEE prover and a ZK prover, and either one can finalize a proposal on its own.

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When both provers agree, withdrawals can finalize in as little as one day. That is the part users will feel.

Faster withdrawals mean better capital efficiency for anyone moving funds off the chain. Long withdrawal windows have been one of the rougher edges of Ethereum layer-2s, and Azul is a direct cut at that problem.

Here is how Base framed the upgrade on the Base Engineering Blog:

With Azul, we’re activating multiproofs on Base – a major step in our path toward Stage 2 decentralization. Multiproofs combine TEE and ZK provers into a single system: either proof type can finalize a proposal on its own, but when both agree, withdrawals finalize in as little as one day.

This unlocks faster withdrawals and better capital efficiency for users, while satisfying a core technical requirement of Stage 2: the ability to detect and handle proof system bugs onchain.

Posting ZK proofs is permissionless and will override the permissioned TEE proofs if there is a contradiction. The design is inspired by Vitalik’s L2 finalization roadmap and gives us security-in-depth.

Multiproofs are an intermediary step towards our desired end state of full ZK proving with near-instant withdrawals. Getting there means onboarding additional ZKVMs, investing in real-time proving performance, and progressively shortening finality times as our confidence in the technology grows.

This is a step toward Stage 2 decentralization, not a declaration that Base is fully decentralized today. The TEE proofs are still permissioned, while ZK proofs are permissionless and can override them in a conflict.

Azul also changes the plumbing under the chain.

The base-reth-node becomes the sole execution client, and base-consensus becomes the new consensus client. Support for older clients is dropped.

That gives Base a client stack it controls and tunes for its own performance goals.

Node operators need to move to the Azul-compatible stack to stay on the network. The Base upgrade docs spell out the new execution and consensus client requirements.

Azul also aligns Base with Ethereum’s Osaka specs, including the CLZ opcode and Osaka repricings.

Staying current with Ethereum keeps Base in step with the broader ecosystem instead of drifting onto its own fork.

The layer-2 race comes down to throughput, cost, and how fast money can move in and out safely. Shorter withdrawals and a faster client stack push Base toward being a real financial rail rather than a place to park funds and wait.

Coinbase has been clear about wanting Base to carry serious volume, and an upgrade it built and shipped itself is a sign it intends to set the pace rather than follow it.

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