trace_filter

trace_filter searches across a range of Base blocks and returns every trace that matches the criteria you set — sender or receiver address, a fromBlock/toBlock range, and after/count pagination. Base is the OP Stack optimistic rollup built by Coinbase, with ETH gas and settlement to Ethereum L1, so its trace data follows the OpenEthereum shape. Post the filter object to https://base.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY (chain ID 8453, hex 0x2105) and the node walks the requested block window, returning a flat array of matching call, create, and self-destruct traces. It is the query tool of the trace namespace: instead of tracing one block or one transaction at a time, you ask "show me everything touching this address between these blocks."

Use cases

• Find every internal ETH transfer sent to a contract across a range of Base blocks by setting toAddress on the filter — these include transfers that emit no event log.
• Detect MEV bot activity on Base by filtering on the fromAddress of known bot wallets across a busy block window.
• Build an indexer for all calls into a specific Base DeFi protocol (such as Aerodrome) by repeatedly paging the filter over sequential block ranges.
• Run forensic analysis of every interaction with a Base contract before and after an exploit by narrowing the block range around the incident.

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://base.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
6    "method": "trace_filter",
7    "params": [{}],
8    "id": 1
9  }'

Try it live in the Base playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Wide block ranges are very slow on Base given its roughly two-second blocks and dense traffic — a large window holds a huge number of blocks, so always narrow fromBlock/toBlock and page with after/count.
• The method needs a trace-enabled archive node; most plain Base RPC endpoints do not expose trace_filter at all.
• Unlike eth_getLogs, traces are not indexed by topic — you can only filter by address and block number, so you cannot query by event signature here.

Supported networks

• Mainnet — Chain ID: 8453
• Sepolia — Chain ID: 84532

See also

• trace_transaction
• trace_block
• trace_call
• trace_replayTransaction

1curl https://base.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
4  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"trace_filter","params":[null]}'