Jesse Pollak, the creator of the L2 network Base, has publicly acknowledged his strategic mistake. His bet on social applications and services as the main driver for mass cryptocurrency adoption has "completely failed." Now, project management is transitioning to the Coinbase team, and Pollak himself is stepping into the shadows to focus on a new, more pragmatic concept.
In his candid statement, Pollak noted that the first quarter of 2026 was a "wake-up call" for him. He admitted that the ecosystem of Farcaster, Zora, and creator tokens — his beloved brainchild — has "completely fallen apart." Instead of bringing a billion users to the crypto industry, the social niche turned out to be a dead-end development path. Real growth, he said, is concentrated in completely different segments: prediction markets, perpetual futures, stablecoins, and tokenization of real-world assets. Base, unfortunately, missed the moment and failed to establish a strong position there.
Although there were individual solutions on the network, such as the perp-DEX Avantis and the betting platform Limitless, their performance was dismal. In July, Limitless accounted for only 0.5% of the total notional volume in prediction markets, while Avantis ranked only 18th in trading volume. This clearly demonstrates how profound the strategic miscalculation was.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, commenting on the situation, agreed with Pollak, acknowledging that the bet on "content coins" did not pay off. However, he emphasized that the company has already pivoted toward trading, payments, and AI agents. This course is now becoming the official strategy for Base.
New Direction: Global Finance Instead of Social Networks
Pollak announced a reorientation of Base toward the role of a blockchain for global finance. Key areas will include: trading tokenized assets, stablecoin-based payments, and infrastructure for AI agents. The project aims to compete directly with giants like Robinhood and Stripe.
In July, the network already activated the B20 standard for issuing stablecoins and RWAs, and in May, Base MCP was introduced — a tool for direct on-chain interaction of AI agents. The Base application will come under the management of the Coinbase team, led by crypto investor Jordan Fish. The service is expected to become a multi-chain platform and expand beyond the current ecosystem.
My comment: The Base story is a classic example of how excessive enthusiasm for one hypothesis can lead to a loss of momentum. The shift from social experiments to pragmatic financial instruments is not just a change in direction but a harsh necessity for survival. The market dictates its terms: either you provide liquidity and utility, or you become another forgotten project. Whether Base can catch up on lost ground and compete with Solana and Ethereum in the DeFi space is a big question, but at least the new team has drawn the right conclusions.