Coinbase CEO admitted, "We messed up, it’s time to turn the page."

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

On July 13, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly admitted on X that the content coin strategy of the Base network had failed after more than a year. From 2025, Base aggressively promoted content coins through the Zora platform, embedding them into its wallet products as a core feature, once making Base the L2 chain with the highest new token issuance.

Brian Armstrong stated, "It didn’t work, we shifted earlier this year. We messed up, it’s time to turn the page." The ZORA token, which provided the core infrastructure for this experiment, has dropped about 95% from its historical high in August last year, with its market value shrinking from about $550 million to around $30 million.

From "Every post is a coin" to "We messed up"

Brian Armstrong’s statement provided the clearest characterization of failure for the nearly year-long creator token experiment by Base. In July 2025, Coinbase renamed Coinbase Wallet to Base App, introducing features like social feeds, chat, payments, trading, and app discovery. When Base opened the app to over 140 countries in December that same year, it still defined it as a product that integrates social, trading, and payment functionalities.

Base’s creator economy was supported by the underlying tools of the on-chain social media platform Zora, where content coins corresponded to specific posts. When users posted images, videos, or text, the system simultaneously created a freely tradable ERC-20 token. Each content coin was fixed at a supply of 1 billion, with creators receiving 1%, or 10 million coins, upon launching. Initially, there was no price for the tokens; other users formed on-chain quotes after purchasing, with subsequent trades determining the market value and the gains or losses for holders.

Buyers receive a token associated with the post, which they can sell to the market at any time. The token does not include copyright to the post, nor does it represent equity, future income, or profit sharing for the creator. Zora's terms of service restrict its usage to entertainment, utilization, and consumption, requiring users to confirm that their purchase purpose does not involve equity or profit-sharing. Therefore, the buyer’s earnings primarily depend on whether later buyers are willing to purchase at a higher price.

The creator token is based on the entire account, with only one token per Zora account. It also issues 1 billion tokens, with 50% entering the public market and the other 50% unlocking linearly to the creator over five years. Any content coins issued subsequently by that account will be associated with the creator token, as Zora hopes that hot content will increase demand for the creator token. Creators can sell their allocated tokens and also earn a share from each transaction fee. Base claimed that this structure could bypass advertising, brand partnerships, and follower count thresholds, directly converting attention into trading revenue.

100,000 tokens launched in one day, trading did not retain users

Low-cost token issuance rapidly inflated Base's superficial activity; in August 2025, since the re-launch of Base App, Zora's activities reached an all-time high, with over 1.6 million creator tokens minted and nearly 3 million independent traders, totaling over $470 million in transaction volume. The price of Zora tokens also increased nearly five times within a month.

In April 2025, after the Base official account published the content "Base is for everyone" through Zora, the system automatically generated a token of the same name. The token surged shortly after launch but then fell about 95% within hours. Base explained that the official did not sell the tokens and did not issue them as a formal project, but ordinary users found it difficult to differentiate between a content release, a token issuance, and official endorsement.

Creator Nick Shirley’s token subsequently provided a more direct example; Shirley's investigative video received over 100 million views on social media, and Brian Armstrong also publicly promoted it, with its creator token's market value once reaching $15 million before rapidly declining. Viral spread brought short-term buying pressure but did not establish sustained demand for the token.

The collaboration between Base and Zora also sparked dissatisfaction among ecosystem developers. Some developers believed that Base allocated too much exposure and resources to Zora and creator tokens, creating neither a stable user barrier nor leaving opportunities for showcasing other Base projects. Community members questioning Brian Armstrong on July 13 also pointed out that many participants suffered losses during the token's decline.

In January still defending content coins, in February began retreating

In January this year, Brian Armstrong was still defending this model. He responded to former Coinbase engineer criticisms regarding the zero-sum nature of content coins by stating that purchasing content coins would create economic value and demand for creator tokens. About a month later, Base App announced it would stop Creator Rewards and remove the Farcaster-supported social feed, shifting the product focus towards tradable assets.

In March, Brian Armstrong first admitted in a podcast that the SocialFi feature of Base App "did not perform well." The 2026 strategy released by Base subsequently placed trading and stablecoin payments at the core. Officials disclosed that Base processed over $17 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume in 2025, covering 26 local currencies and 17 countries, providing clearer commercial rationale for transitioning to financial infrastructure.

In the same post, Armstrong refuted another criticism from @smileyXBT, who argued that Base's current emphasis on AI agents was a repetition of chasing hype cycles. Armstrong responded that Base's roadmap has always been prioritized around three elements: trading, payments, and AI agents, with most resources currently focused on trading.

From April 2025, when the Base official entered the minting game, to July 2026 when Armstrong said we messed up, it took 15 months. ZORA’s market value evaporated by nearly $500 million. Throughout the process, Coinbase continually doubled down, embedding Zora into its wallet products, encouraging funds to establish creator token indices, and providing platform-level exposure for insider tokens.

Coinbase can categorize these 15 months as a product experiment that has already turned the page, but the losses in holder accounts will not disappear with the strategic shift.