The ecosystem of blockchain applications is evolving rapidly and network priorities are changing as uses change. Several players are now re-evaluating their strategic choices in order to meet user expectations. In this context, crypto is experiencing a new turning point with the declarations of Jesse Pollak, creator of Base. He publicly acknowledges that the platform has taken a wrong direction by favoring social experiences. He now believes that this choice wasted precious time in the face of the rise of prediction markets and perpetual contracts.
In brief
- Jesse Pollak acknowledges that Base underestimated the rise of perpetual contracts and prediction markets.
- The manager leaves the management of the Base application to devote himself to the development of the blockchain.
- Coinbase takes over control of the Base application under the leadership of Jordan Fish (“Cobie”).
- Base is gradually abandoning its strategy focused on social applications in favor of financial services.
- Stablecoins, tokenized assets and AI agents are becoming the main areas of network development.
Crypto: Jesse Pollak recognizes a strategic error for Base
In the world of cryptocurrencies, strategies evolve rapidly in step with new uses. Jesse Pollak announced that he was leaving the management of the Base application after admitting to having made a bad strategic bet. In a message published Wednesday on X, he explains that he believed that creation, content and messaging applications would drive the adoption of digital assets. This approach was to attract a wide audience to the Base ecosystem. He now believes that this vision did not materialize as he had anticipated.
We realized that our focus on social had caused our base to lag in key areas that are now increasingly critical: we had prediction platforms (big thanks to Avantis!) and prediction markets (big thanks to Limitless!), but both were far behind our larger competitors.
Jesse Pollak, founder of Base. Source: X/@jessepollak.
According to Pollak, this priority given to social uses has slowed down the development of segments that have become essential. He cites in particular prediction markets and perpetual futures contracts, which now occupy a central place in decentralized finance. Base, however, had solutions in these areas with Limitless for predictive markets and Avantis for perpetual products. However, these platforms have remained largely behind their main competitors.
The manager emphasizes that “ this awareness explains the change of direction initiated earlier this year “. The initial objective was to democratize cryptocurrencies through social products like Farcaster, Zora and mini-applications. Now, Base is focusing its efforts more on financial applications, including trading, payments and artificial intelligence agents.
Prediction markets and perps got a head start
The available figures illustrate the delay mentioned by Jesse Pollak. THE Dune Analytics data show that Limitless represented only 0.5% of the total monthly notional volume recorded across all prediction markets during the month of July. This share remains very limited compared to the most important platforms in the sector.
As for perpetual contracts, the situation appears similar. Avantis is in 18th place among platforms ranked according to their notional volume of exchanges over thirty days, according to data from DefiLlama. These results confirm that the tools developed on Base have not succeeded in keeping up with the growth observed among several competitors.
For the crypto ecosystem, this development shows that user expectations have shifted more quickly towards financial applications. Prediction markets and crypto platforms have gradually gained importance. Pollak believes that Base underestimated this dynamic as these products became pillars of the sector.
Coinbase takes over management of the Base app
As a result of this reorganization, Jesse Pollak indicated that he would return management of the Base application to Coinbase. This will be placed under the responsibility of Jordan Fish, better known on X under the pseudonym “ Coby “. Pollak specifies that he will now devote his time to the development of the Base blockchain.
Regarding the application, my goal is to make Base the benchmark blockchain infrastructure for global finance. With this in mind, I entrusted the development of the Base application to the parent company, Coinbase, where my now good friend @cobie will take over. Its goal will be to make it the best on-chain application ever created, including opening it beyond the Base ecosystem, in a way that, to be honest, I probably won’t like as the Base manager.
Jesse Pollak, founder of Base. Source: X/@jessepollak.
This announcement comes a few days after another important position taken within Coinbase. Its chief executive, Brian Armstrong, admitted that content-related cryptocurrencies were not producing the expected results. He declared that “ the company had made a mistake and it was time to pursue a new strategy “.
This reorientation had already begun several months earlier. In February, Base ended its Creator Rewards program as well as its Farcaster social feed. Launched in July 2025, this program sought to transform layer 2 of Ethereum into a more social environment, where content creation could generate revenue. Pollak also acknowledges that the Base application was an imperfect Farcaster client. This change illustrates a new orientation more focused on tradable assets.
Base is now accelerating on stablecoins, RWAs and AI agents
Base’s repositioning is not limited to the abandonment of certain social products. Last week, the network activated its B20 token standard on the mainnet. This native framework aims to facilitate the development of stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets as well as other fungible tokens.
A few weeks earlier, Base also introduced Base MCP, or Model Context Protocol. This tool allows users to manage their cryptocurrencies directly from the chat interface of an artificial intelligence model. It also facilitates interactions with several protocols, including Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr and Virtuals.
This strategy is part of a broader roadmap unveiled in the spring. In April, Base announced several upgrades to its systems to prepare for an economy more driven by artificial intelligence agents.
The company had already identified stablecoins, tokenization of real-world assets, and prediction markets as its key growth areas for 2026. In this new phase of crypto, Pollak says it wants to build a blockchain infrastructure capable of sustainably supporting global finance. He explains that “ the objective is to make Base a network where financial flows can gradually be organized on a large scale “.
This reorientation marks a new stage for Base. The coming months will allow us to measure whether this refocusing on financial applications, stablecoins, tokenized assets and AI agents will allow the network to reduce its lag compared to already well-established platforms. The success of this strategy will now depend on its ability to transform these priorities into real adoption, while continuing to develop its blockchain infrastructure.
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