At BaseCamp held last night, Base founder Jesse Pollak stated that Base is "beginning to explore" the launch of a native token. Subsequently, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong posted that "we are exploring the issuance of a native token for the Base network.
It could become an important tool to accelerate decentralization and promote the growth of creators and developers within the ecosystem. It is important to clarify that there are currently no definite plans. We are simply updating our vision. So far, we are still in the exploratory phase."
This news marks a shift in Coinbase's stance on whether Base will launch a token.
Previously, Coinbase representatives repeatedly stated that there were no plans for Base to issue a token, and that Base currently uses ETH as gas. The team also emphasized in a blog post on Monday that there are "no clear plans to share externally."
"Base is a bridge, not an island," Pollak said at the BaseCamp conference in Stowe, Vermont, expressing his hope that Base could form a closer connection with the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Why issue a token?
"When Base launched, our top priority was clear: to build a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. Issuing a token was not necessary to achieve these goals, so we focused on our core product," the team wrote in a blog. However, the market environment seems to have quietly changed.
Since its launch in 2023, Base has achieved several milestones over the past year, such as achieving "sub-second, sub-cent transactions." Notably, after introducing a permissionless proof-of-error mechanism, Base has entered "Phase One" according to the Rollup decentralization framework proposed by Vitalik Buterin.
From an external perspective, Base's recent initiation of token exploration is clearly driven by practical considerations.
In recent months, Base's liquidity has rapidly shrunk, with data showing a net outflow of up to $4.6 billion over the past three quarters, and a total outflow of $5.7 billion for the year, primarily flowing back to the Ethereum mainnet. Although the TVL still appears to be growing on the surface, when converted to ETH, funds have been experiencing continuous outflows since April of this year, lacking true long-term retention.
Despite several hot events such as TBA releases and Coinbase integrating DEX, most have been fleeting and failed to create lasting user stickiness and wealth effects. Zora's "three-token flywheel" has never truly spun, and the breakout project Virtual has not received the same ecological support, leading to a long-term lack of killer applications to support the ecosystem.
In this market context, the team realized that relying solely on the Coinbase brand and traffic influx to drive user growth was insufficient for the network's long-term development. Thus, token issuance has become a logical option—not only to more effectively retain funds on Base and avoid becoming a "way station," but also to help convert short-term speculators into a long-term community of interests, while providing quality developers with more certain long-term incentives to drive the landing of more infrastructure and innovative applications.
As the team stated, "Exploring the issuance of a network token is one path to realizing the vision of a global on-chain economy." This initiative carries the goal of accelerating decentralization and responds to the practical need for incentive mechanisms in ecological expansion.
Additionally, from a regulatory perspective, the Trump administration has placed cryptocurrency at the core of its policy and encouraged regulators to create space for innovation and experimentation, which has also reduced the resistance Coinbase faces in advancing token issuance on a compliance level. Meanwhile, Base's open cross-chain bridge to the Solana ecosystem demonstrates its strategic positioning as "Base is a bridge, not an island."
Thus, it is clear that issuing a token is not only a tactical adjustment but also a long-term choice to deeply bind the team, users, developers, and capital, aiming to build an ecosystem that can truly self-cycle and retain value.
The following is the English translation of the content:
The State of Base at BaseCamp 2025
At BaseCamp 2025 in Stowe, Vermont, we shared an update: Base is beginning to explore a network token. As we embark on this exploration, we are sharing this shift in vision in advance as part of our commitment to building openly, but we currently have no definite plans to share. We also announced an open-source bridge built by Base that connects Base and Solana, enabling interoperability between the two chains. Additionally, there are new features that make it easier to build, grow, and profit on Base, including Base Batches 002 to help builders turn ideas into reality, more features in the Base app beta, and a new Base Build dashboard for builders to grow and profit.
Exploring a Network Token
Until now, Base has not considered issuing a network token.
When Base launched, our priorities were clear: to build a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. Launching a token was not necessary to achieve these goals, and we wanted to focus on our core product.
This year, we achieved our North Star goal of sub-second, sub-cent transactions and have expanded from a single chain to an open stack, allowing anyone to easily build, trade, and profit on-chain.
As we look forward to building a global on-chain economy, we believe it should be open and accessible. As the ecosystem develops and community participation deepens, this has led us to reconsider our vision. Exploring a network token is one path to realizing our vision of a global on-chain economy, and a Base network token has the potential to accelerate Base's decentralization and expand opportunities for builders and creators across the ecosystem.
We are in the early stages of exploration and have no specific details to share regarding timing, design, or governance. In considering various possibilities, we have three commitments to the community:
We remain deeply committed to Ethereum and will continue to build on Ethereum.
As a U.S. company, we are committed to working with regulators and lawmakers to do this correctly.
We are committed to bringing the community along with us as we build openly, listen, and learn.
If we move forward with a token, it will be based on principles and values and aligned with our long-term mission: to build a global economy that increases innovation, creativity, and freedom.
Other Announcements at BaseCamp 2025
At BaseCamp, we also shared significant updates on how to help the ecosystem move forward. Overall, our goal is to make Base the best place to build, grow, and profit.
Bridge Between Base and Solana
We believe Base should be a bridge, not an island. If everyone is building isolated, independent ecosystems, we cannot bring the world on-chain. We want Base to be the hub of the entire on-chain economy, the universal chain where you can do anything—from payments to trading, from building applications to social publishing.
We also believe the global economy must be interoperable and connected. Users should be able to discover new applications, try new things, and unlock value wherever it exists, while builders should be able to seamlessly reach users across chains.
That’s why we are excited to announce the bridge between Base and Solana.
This bridge allows you to seamlessly move assets across chains by bridging between ERC20 and SPL tokens, so you can do things like:
• Deposit and use SOL in any Base application
• Bring any Solana asset into any Base application
• Export any Base asset to Solana
This means builders can reach more users and liquidity, and users can more easily access the global on-chain economy. The bridge is now open-source on GitHub, available on the testnet, and will launch on the mainnet in the coming weeks. This is just the beginning. Our goal is to make Base the interoperable hub of the global on-chain economy, and we will add support for more chains in the future.
Base Batches 002
We know that getting started can be difficult. We created Base Batches to provide any builder with a clear path to turn ideas into products and then grow those products into businesses.
Earlier this year, Base Batches brought together over 5,000 developers from more than 100 countries. Among them, 77 teams made it to the finals, received mentorship, and earned a spot at our first demo day. We awarded over $1 million in funding.
Base Batches provide a stage, tools, and community for new projects, giving them what they need to build useful applications, reach quality users, and grow quickly.
Base Batches 002 launches on September 29. This new iteration includes:
Funding, mentorship, and distribution for new developers from day one
A global environment for creators and founders to quickly test ideas
A demo day at Devconnect in Argentina to showcase the best projects to the world
Base App Updates
This summer, we launched the Base app, a universal app that combines social networking, app discovery, chat, payments, and trading. Since its invite-only beta launch in July, the waitlist has grown to over 1 million, and we are excited to see creators earning while using the app. So far, over $500,000 has been paid out in creator earnings, with over 50% of publishing users earning.
The design of the Base app considers both users and builders: it provides you with a direct channel to distribute to millions, allowing you to easily launch, test, and grow your app from day one. This means builders publishing to the Base app can immediately reach a highly engaged, profit-seeking user community looking for new experiences.
We are still refining the new app experience, continuously listening to feedback, making improvements, and releasing updates. Since July, we have released:
• Easier discovery of popular tokens
• Seamless in-stream trading
• Faster performance on Android
• A new web experience that allows you to share posts anywhere
We are expanding access weekly and plan to open the app to everyone later this year. If you are building on Base, now is the time to start creating mini-apps so you are ready. Over 40% of Base app beta users are already using mini-apps.
To make building mini-apps easier, we launched Base Build, a hub for builders to gain user insights, distribution, and rewards. You can view metrics like active users, session times, and which acquisition channels are most effective, and you can apply for $500 in free gas credits, with more builder rewards coming soon.
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