Base Creator Jesse Pollak Says Social Bet was Wrong

Base creator Jesse Pollak says he’s stepping again from main the Base App after admitting he made a “incorrect guess” on social, leaving the chain to fall behind on prediction markets and perpetual futures. 

In a submit to X on Wednesday, Pollak said he had guess 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 essential — we had perps (shoutout avantis!) and prediction markets (shoutout limitless!), however each had been nicely 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, according to DefiLlama.

Pollak’s feedback give additional perception into the reversal of Base’s development technique earlier this 12 months. Whereas Base initially centered on social merchandise corresponding to Farcaster, Zora and miniapps to convey crypto to “a billion folks,” Pollak mentioned monetary functions 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 he will likely be returning management of the Base App to Coinbase, beneath Jordan Fish, recognized on X as “Cobie,” whereas he focuses on the Base blockchain. 

Coinbase CEO: “We tousled” on content material cash

Pollak’s submit got here simply days after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged content material cash “didn’t work,” prompting the corporate to pivot earlier this 12 months. 

“We tousled, time to show the web page,” Armstrong said on Monday. 

In February, Base sundown 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 shopper.” 

Base’s work on stablecoins, AI brokers 

Final week, Base activated its B20 token standard 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 device that lets customers manage their crypto directly from an AI mannequin’s chat interface and work together with crypto protocols corresponding to Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr and Virtuals.

In April, Base mentioned it was upgrading key programs in preparation for an AI agent economic system as a part of its 2026 roadmap. It highlighted real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins, and prediction markets as being key development areas in 2026.  

“We’re going to construct 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 following century,” Pollak mentioned on Wednesday.  

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