eth_getBalance

Returns the ETH balance of an account at a given block.

Returns the ETH balance of an address at a given block.

Since Denim, Base produces a canonical block every 200ms and Flashblocks are retired. The "pending" tag is still accepted, but it no longer returns Flashblocks preconfirmation state. Use "latest" for the newest canonical state. See Migrate From Flashblocks.

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Parameters

address · string · required

The 20-byte address to query.

block · string · required

Block number in hex, or "latest", "pending", "safe", "finalized", "earliest".

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Returns

result · string

The balance in wei as a hexadecimal string.

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Example

Standard (latest)

curl https://mainnet.base.org \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "eth_getBalance",
    "params": ["0x742d35Cc6634C0532925a3b8D4C9dD0b4f3BaEa", "latest"],
    "id": 1
  }'

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Read Balances for Many Addresses

eth_getBalance returns the balance of one address per call. To produce a balance snapshot across a set of addresses, such as every wallet your platform operates:

1. Keep your own address list. Base has no registry that maps addresses to the organization that controls them, so the list comes from your own records, for example the accounts your wallet or custody provider created for you.
2. Pin one block number. Read every balance at the same block so the snapshot reflects a single chain state. For reports, look up the finalized block with eth_getBlockByNumber and pass its number to every read.
3. Batch the reads. Call aggregate3 on the Multicall3 preinstall at 0xcA11bde05977b3631167028862bE2a173976CA11 with eth_call at the pinned block. In the batch, use Multicall3’s own getEthBalance(address) for ETH and each token contract’s balanceOf(address) for ERC-20 balances.

To report balances over time, for example a time-weighted average, repeat the snapshot at fixed time intervals. Choose each snapshot block by its timestamp, not by a block count. Since Denim, Base produces a block every 200ms instead of every 2 seconds, so a fixed block count no longer maps to a fixed duration.

Reading state at older blocks requires a node that retains historical state. A Reth full node keeps only the last 10,064 blocks, about 34 minutes on Base. An archive node keeps all history. See Snapshots for the difference.

A balance snapshot is a set of RPC reads, not an attestation. Base does not provide a service that attests, audits, or certifies balances across an organization’s wallets.