Base lead Jesse Pollak published an update on Base's direction, admitting the social focus was wrong and announcing a structural refocus for Base. Pollak noted that builders did drive the next wave of crypto adoption through prediction markets, perpetuals, and stablecoins, but the social thesis was wrong.
first off - in case it’s not obvious, the first quarter of 2026 was a punch in the face. I spent 2024 and 2025 making a
Pollak is stepping back from the Base App and returning his focus to the chain itself. The Base App has been handed back to Coinbase, where Cobie will take over development. In 2026, Base will focus on enabling better money, including trading, stablecoins, payments, tokenization, and agents. Base recently shipped the B20 native token standard for real world assets.
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