Base, the Ethereum layer 2 (L2) incubated by Coinbase, has announced that it will abandon its first social edition.
The social vision was a ‘wrong’ bet, according to founder Jesse Pollak, adding that they will focus on other trending segments such as commerce, payments and artificial intelligence representatives.
In my opinion, we made the right bet on builders but the wrong bet on social.
Pollak said he’s been betting on builders and social experiences at the chain over the past two years. Secondly, it did not happen as expected, including the creator’s money.
In fact, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently admitted as much following harsh criticism of L2’s primacy.
I agree with your opinion about the first episode and content money. They didn’t work out and we returned earlier this year. We’ve messed up, it’s time to turn the page.
Pollak said he will remain as leader of Base as part of the pivot, but the Base app will be led by crypto investor Jordan Fish, popularly known as Cobie on X.
We will build Base on blockchain for global finance. In 2026, this means three concrete things: winning commerce, payments and agencies.
Will Robinhood Chain Turn Base?
Interestingly, the pivot followed the aggressive move of Robinhood Chain, another Ethereum L2 that launched this month. Robinhood L2 is publicly traded adopted memecoin trading and now competes with Hyperliquid and Base in terms of DEX volumes.
In the last 24 hours alone, L2’s volume was $800 million, while Base’s was $880 million. Looking at weekly activity, this figure is seen as 5 billion dollars and 6 billion dollars, respectively.
In other words, by replacing Base, Robinhood could become the third-largest chain in terms of speculative activity, after Solana and Ethereum. In fact, an analyst named Jonah questioned Base’s sudden turnaround.
The base shows weakness as Robinhood Chain rises. Why would Base do this?
Every crypto platform and exchange wants to be a super app for finance. From Hyperliquid to Binance, trading, tokenization, payments, and more are increasingly integrated.
It remains to be seen whether the pivot will delay the possibility of Robinhood Chain surpassing it in DEX volume.
Final Summary
- Base abandons social experimentation and will focus on trading, tokenization and AI brokers
- The move comes at a time when competition from Robinhood L2 is increasing and Coinbase’s CEO has acknowledged that some Base experiments, including originator coins, have failed.
