Base doubles down on trading, finance, and payments after Jesse Pollak admits social strategy ‘disintegrated completely’

Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base, just did something rare in crypto: admitted he was wrong. On July 15, Pollak stepped back from leading the Base app after conceding that his bet on onchain social applications and creator coins had, in his words, “disintegrated completely.” The new game plan for Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network is decidedly less experimental. Base will now focus on three pillars: trading, payments, and AI agents. A leadership shakeup and a strategic U-turn Pollak handed the keys to the Base app over to Jordan Fish, better known in crypto circles as Cobie. Fish previously founded Echo, a platform that Coinbase acquired for $375 million in 2025. Pollak acknowledged that the social-first approach left Base trailing competitors in trading, tokenization, and payments. It’s worth noting that Pollak isn’t leaving Base entirely. He’s stepping back from the consumer app specifically, while the broader Base infrastructure continues under Coinbase’s umbrella. Pollak expressed confidence that Base can outpace both Robinhood and Stripe in their respective domains. The numbers behind the pivot The network currently ranks as the largest Ethereum Layer 2 by total value locked,...