Base creator Jesse Pollak says he’s stepping again from main the Base App after admitting he made a “improper wager” on social, leaving the chain to fall behind on prediction markets and perpetual futures.
In a publish to X on Wednesday, Pollak said he had wager that creator, content material and messaging apps would drive adoption, however as an alternative the market “disintegrated utterly.”
“We realized how our concentrate on social had meant that base had fallen behind in key areas that had been now more and more important — we had perps (shoutout avantis!) and prediction markets (shoutout limitless!), however each had been properly behind scaled rivals.”
Dune Analytics information shows Base-native prediction market Limitless accounted for simply 0.5% of complete month-to-month notional quantity throughout prediction markets in July. Perpetual decentralized trade (DEX) Avantis ranked 18th by reported 30-day notional buying and selling quantity, accordingly that DefiLlama.
Pollak’s feedback give additional perception into the reversal of Base’s development technique earlier this yr. Whereas Base initially centered on social merchandise reminiscent of Farcaster, Zora and miniapps to convey crypto to “a billion folks,” Pollak stated monetary purposes are the best way ahead for the community, with a concentrate on buying and selling, funds and AI brokers.
Limitless Change’s month-to-month notional quantity is simply a fraction of its bigger rivals. Supply: Dune Analytics
Pollak added that he will likely be returning management of the Base App to Coinbase, below Jordan Fish, identified on X as “Cobie,” whereas he focuses on the Base blockchain.
Coinbase CEO: “We tousled” on content material cash
Pollak’s publish got here simply days after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged content material cash “did not work,” prompting the corporate to pivot earlier this yr.
“We tousled, time to show the web page,” Armstrong said on Monday.
In February, Base sunsets its Creator Rewards program and Farcaster-powered social feed as a part of a strategic shift to tradable property.
Associated: Moonbeam to pivot from Polkadot to Base, unveils AI agent framework
The Creator Rewards program launched in July 2025 and was supposed to make the Ethereum layer-2 Base a extra social ecosystem, the place exercise and engagement translate into earnings. In the meantime, Pollak admitted the Base App was an “imperfect Farcaster consumer.”
Base’s work on stablecoins, AI brokers
Final week, Base activated its B20 token commonplace on the mainnet, introducing a local framework for stablecoins, tokenized real-world property (RWAs) and different fungible tokens.
In Could, Base launched Base MCP (Mannequin Context Protocol), a instrument that lets customers handle their crypto instantly from an AI mannequin’s chat interface and work together with crypto protocols reminiscent of Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr and Virtuals.
In April, Base stated it was upgrading key programs in preparation for an AI agent financial system as a part of it 2026 roadmap. It highlighted real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins, and prediction markets as being key development areas in 2026.
“We will construct a base into the blockchain for world finance and do all the things we will to be the place that the world’s cash settles over the subsequent century,” Pollak stated on Wednesday.
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