Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase, deployed its second major upgrade, Beryl, to the Base Sepolia testnet on Thursday. Mainnet activation is scheduled for June 25.
At the center of the upgrade is B20, a native token standard designed to issue stablecoins and other assets directly within Base’s node software. Beryl will also reduce the standard withdrawal period from Base to Ethereum from seven days to five.
Token Logic Moves Inside the Node
B20 fully implements the ERC-20 specification, including the ERC-2612 permit feature. This allows users to approve token spending with a signature instead of submitting a separate transaction. As a result, the standard is directly compatible with existing wallets, exchanges and indexers built for ERC-20 tokens.
The key difference lies in how the tokens are executed. B20 tokens do not operate like conventional smart contracts. They function as precompiled contracts, meaning their logic is written in Rust and runs directly within the node software instead of being deployed onchain as EVM bytecode.
The standard comes with an Issuer Toolkit featuring role-based access controls, minting and burning functions, optional supply caps, detailed transfer policies, and freezing and seizure mechanisms for regulatory purposes. Two variants will be available at launch: a general-purpose asset version and a stablecoin version with a fixed six-decimal precision that allows issuers to define their own currency codes.
The toolkit is built on code audited by Base and Spearbit. Future upgrades are expected to allow issuers to pay gas fees with their own B20 tokens instead of ETH.
Withdrawal Period Reduced to Five Days
Beryl also shortens the time required to withdraw assets from Base to Ethereum. The waiting period on the standard route used by most bridge providers will fall from seven days to five.
The change builds on the Multiproofs system introduced with Azul, Base’s first independent upgrade, which went live on the mainnet in May. Multiproofs created a one-day fast-finality route when a trusted execution environment, or TEE, and a zero-knowledge proof agreed that a transaction was valid. However, the high cost of generating ZK proofs has limited the route’s practical use.
Beryl instead focuses on the more commonly used slow route, which relies on a single proof. The previous seven-day waiting period was based on Base’s former fault-proof system, which included lengthy delays to give challengers enough time to dispute a withdrawal.
Multiproofs narrowed the purpose of that delay to detecting and disabling a faulty prover. According to Base, this change allows the withdrawal window to continue shrinking.
Scaling Improvements Behind the Scenes
The upgrade also introduces Reth V2. The new version of the Rust-based execution client, which has served as Base’s sole client since Azul, reduces disk usage across full, minimal and archive nodes.
This allows Base to increase its block gas targets without overloading sequencer and RPC nodes, expanding the amount of blockspace available to developers.
Base Accelerates Its Upgrade Schedule
Beryl is arriving roughly four weeks after Azul was activated on the mainnet. Base attributes this faster pace to its decision in February to move away from its shared dependency on Optimism’s OP Stack and transition to its own unified technology stack.
Base’s next upgrade, Cobalt, is scheduled for September. It is expected to introduce native account abstraction, turning smart accounts into a protocol-level feature and directly integrating capabilities such as gas sponsorship and transaction batching into the network.
The roadmap also includes additional B20 features and a single node binary combining the chain’s consensus and execution clients.
