Base creator Jesse Pollak has acknowledged that the network’s early focus on social applications was a strategic misstep, announcing he will step back from leading the Base App while returning his attention to developing the Base blockchain.
In a post on X, Pollak admitted he had expected creator tools, social content, and messaging applications to become crypto’s primary adoption drivers. Instead, user demand shifted decisively toward financial products such as perpetual futures, prediction markets, and onchain trading.
According to Pollak, Base’s emphasis on social experiences caused the ecosystem to lag behind competitors in two of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors. While Base supported projects such as Avantis for perpetual trading and Limitless for prediction markets, both failed to achieve the scale of rival platforms.
The numbers reflect that gap. Base-native prediction market Limitless accounted for only a small share of monthly prediction market activity, while perpetual exchange Avantis ranked well below the industry’s leading decentralized trading platforms.
The comments provide further context behind Base’s strategic pivot. Initially, the Ethereum Layer-2 network positioned products like Farcaster, Zora, and Mini Apps as the foundation for onboarding billions of users. However, Base is now prioritizing financial infrastructure, with trading, payments, stablecoins, tokenized assets, and AI-powered applications becoming its core focus.
As part of the leadership change, Pollak will hand responsibility for the Base App back to Coinbase under Jordan Fish, better known in the crypto community as Cobie, allowing him to concentrate on expanding the Base blockchain.
The shift follows similar remarks from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who recently admitted the company’s experiment with “content coins” failed to gain meaningful traction. Earlier this year, Coinbase discontinued Base’s Creator Rewards program and its Farcaster-powered social feed as it redirected resources toward financial products.
Despite moving away from its social-first strategy, Base continues to invest heavily in new infrastructure. The network recently launched its B20 token standard, providing native support for stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and other fungible tokens.
Base has also expanded its AI ambitions. Earlier this year, it introduced Base MCP (Model Context Protocol), enabling users to interact with blockchain applications and manage crypto assets directly through AI chat interfaces. The protocol integrates with major DeFi platforms including Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr, and Virtuals.
Looking ahead, Base plans to build infrastructure for an AI-driven onchain economy, with stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, prediction markets, and AI agents forming the foundation of its long-term roadmap.
Pollak said the ultimate goal is to transform Base into the blockchain powering global finance and become the network where the world’s money settles in the decades ahead.
