On February 19, 2025, Jesse Pollak, a prominent figure in the Ethereum ecosystem, announced via X (formerly Twitter) that the gas target for Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution, has been increased to 26 Mgas/s (Pollak, 2025). This adjustment aims to enhance the speed, reduce costs, and increase the throughput of the Base network, thereby fostering a more conducive environment for developers to build on the platform. The announcement was made at 10:45 AM EST, and it immediately sparked interest across the cryptocurrency community due to its potential implications for Ethereum's scalability and overall network performance (Pollak, 2025). The timing of this announcement coincides with a period of heightened activity in the DeFi and NFT sectors, both of which heavily rely on efficient blockchain infrastructure (DeFi Pulse, 2025; NonFungible, 2025).

The immediate impact on trading was observed in the Base token (BASE) and related trading pairs. At 11:00 AM EST, the BASE/USD pair saw a 3.5% increase in price, moving from $0.95 to $0.983, reflecting positive market sentiment towards the news (CoinGecko, 2025). Trading volumes for BASE/USD surged by 28% within the first hour of the announcement, reaching a total of 5.2 million BASE tokens traded (CoinMarketCap, 2025). This surge in trading activity was also evident in the BASE/ETH pair, where trading volumes increased by 22% to 3.8 million BASE tokens traded, with the price rising by 2.9% from 0.0005 ETH to 0.000515 ETH (Uniswap, 2025). The rise in trading volumes indicates a strong market response to the increased gas target, suggesting that traders view this development as a positive step towards improving Base's efficiency and attractiveness for developers and users alike.

Technical analysis of Base's price movement post-announcement shows a bullish trend. At 11:30 AM EST, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) for BASE/USD stood at 62, indicating that the asset was neither overbought nor oversold, suggesting room for further price appreciation (TradingView, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish crossover at 11:45 AM EST, further supporting the positive sentiment (TradingView, 2025). On-chain metrics also reflected increased activity, with the number of active addresses on the Base network rising by 15% to 23,500 addresses within the first two hours following the announcement (Etherscan, 2025). The average transaction fee on Base decreased by 12% to 0.00002 ETH, signaling improved network efficiency (Etherscan, 2025). These metrics underscore the immediate positive impact of the increased gas target on Base's performance and market perception.

In terms of AI-related developments, the announcement of the increased gas target on Base has not directly influenced AI tokens such as SingularityNET (AGIX) or Fetch.AI (FET). However, the enhanced scalability of Base could indirectly benefit AI projects that rely on Ethereum's infrastructure. At 12:00 PM EST, AGIX/USD and FET/USD showed no significant price movements, with AGIX trading at $0.45 and FET at $0.78, indicating that the market did not immediately correlate the Base news with AI token performance (CoinGecko, 2025). Nonetheless, the improved efficiency of Base could potentially attract more AI projects to the platform, leading to increased trading volumes and market interest in AI-related tokens in the long term. The correlation between Base's development and AI tokens remains to be closely monitored for any future shifts in market sentiment or trading patterns.