Not only will this more efficiently deposit funds on Base, preventing it from becoming a "passing-through" platform, it will also help transform short-term speculators into long-term stakeholders. It will also provide more certain long-term incentives for high-quality developers, driving the deployment of more infrastructure and innovative applications. At BaseCamp last night, Base founder Jesse Pollak stated that Base had "begun exploring" the launch of a native token. Subsequently, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong stated in a post, "We are exploring the issuance of a native token for the Base network. It could become an important tool to accelerate decentralization and drive growth for creators and developers within the ecosystem. To be clear, there are no firm plans at this time. We've simply updated our philosophy. As of now, we're still in the exploratory phase." This news marks a shift in Coinbase's stance on whether Base will launch a token. Coinbase representatives have previously stated that Base has no plans to issue tokens and that it currently uses ETH as gas. The team also emphasized in a blog post on Monday that there are currently "no clear plans to share." "Base is a bridge, not an island," Pollak said at the BaseCamp conference in Stowe, Vermont, adding that he hopes Base can form closer connections with the broader Ethereum ecosystem. Why issue a token? "When Base launched, our priority was clear: building a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. Achieving these goals didn't require issuing a token, so we focused on our core product," the team wrote in a blog post. But now, 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, Asia-US tiered transactions." Notably, after introducing a permissionless error proof mechanism, Base has entered "Phase 1," following the Rollup decentralized framework proposed by Vitalik Buterin. From an outside perspective, Base's launch of token exploration is driven by clear practical considerations. Over the past few months, Base's liquidity has been rapidly shrinking. Data shows a net outflow of $4.6 billion over the past three quarters, with a total outflow of $5.7 billion for the entire year, primarily returning to the Ethereum mainnet. While the platform's TVL appears to be growing, when converted to ETH, a sustained outflow of funds has been occurring since April of this year, demonstrating a lack of genuine long-term retention. While there have been some buzzworthy events during this period, such as the TBA launch and Coinbase's DEX integration, most have been short-lived, failing to generate lasting user engagement and wealth creation. Analysts believe that Zora's "three-coin flywheel" has never truly begun to swirl, and the outbound-facing Virtual has not received the same ecosystem support. Base has long lacked a killer application to sustain its ecosystem. In this market context, the team realized that user growth driven solely by Coinbase's brand and traffic flow was no longer sufficient to support the network's long-term growth. Therefore, a token issuance became a natural option. This not only allowed for more efficient capital retention within Base, preventing it from becoming a "passing-through" platform, but also helped transform short-term speculators into long-term stakeholders. It also provided more certain long-term incentives for high-quality developers, driving the deployment 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 not only embodies the goal of accelerating decentralization but also addresses the practical need for incentive mechanisms for ecosystem expansion. Furthermore, regarding the regulatory environment, the Trump administration has placed cryptocurrency at the core of its policies and encouraged regulators to create space for innovation and experimentation, which has reduced Coinbase's regulatory resistance to issuing a token. At the same time, Base connected to the Solana ecosystem through an open cross-chain bridge, demonstrating its strategic positioning of "Base as a bridge, not an island." This demonstrates that issuing a token isn't just a tactical adjustment; it's a long-term strategy that deeply connects the team, users, developers, and capital, aiming to build a truly self-sustaining ecosystem. The following is an English translation: Base's Current Status at BaseCamp 2025 At BaseCamp 2025 in Stowe, Vermont, we shared an update: Base has begun exploring network tokens. As we began this exploration, we anticipated this shift in philosophy as part of our commitment to building openly, but we currently have no firm plans to share. We also announced an open-source bridge built by Base, connecting Base and Solana, enabling interoperability between the two chains. Additionally, new features make it easier to build, grow, and earn on Base, including Base Batches 002 to help builders bring their ideas to life, more features in the Base app beta, and a new Base Build dashboard for builders to grow and earn. Exploring a Network Token Until now, Base hadn't considered issuing a network token. When Base launched, our priorities were clear: building a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. Launching a token wasn't necessary to achieve these goals; we wanted to focus on our core product. This year, we achieved our North Star goal of sub-second, Asia-US grade transactions and have expanded from a single chain to an open stack, making it simple for anyone to build, trade, and earn on it. As we envision building a global on-chain economy, we believe it should be open and accessible. As the ecosystem grows and community engagement deepens, this has led us to reconsider our philosophy. We're exploring a network token as a path to realizing our vision of a global on-chain economy. The Base network token has the potential to accelerate Base's decentralization and expand opportunities for builders and creators across the ecosystem. We're in the early stages of this exploration and don't have any specific details to share regarding timing, design, or governance. As we consider various possibilities, we have three commitments to the community: 1. We remain deeply committed to Ethereum and will continue to build on it. 2. As a US company, we are committed to working with regulators and lawmakers to do this right. 3. We are committed to bringing the community along with us as we build, listen, and learn openly. If we move forward with a token, it will be based on principles, values, and aligned with our long-term mission: to build a global economy that increases innovation, creativity, and freedom.
Other Announcements We Made at BaseCamp 2025
At BaseCamp, we also shared major updates on how we're helping the ecosystem move forward. Overall, our goal is to make Base the best place to build, grow, and earn.
A Bridge Between Base and Solana
We believe Base should be a bridge, not an island. We can't bring the world on-chain if everyone is building their own independent, isolated ecosystem. We want Base to be the hub for the entire on-chain economy, the universal chain where you can do everything, from payments to transactions, from building apps 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, and builders should be able to seamlessly reach users across chains. That’s why we’re excited to announce the bridge between Base and Solana. This bridge lets you seamlessly move assets across chains by bridging between ERC20 and SPL tokens, so you can do things like: • Deposit and spend SOL in any Base app • Bring any Solana asset into any Base app • Export any Base asset to Solana This means builders have access to more users and liquidity, and users have easier access to the global on-chain economy. The bridge is open source on Github and available on testnet now, and will be live on mainnet in the coming weeks. This is just the beginning. Our goal is for Base to become the interoperable hub for the global on-chain economy, and we’ll be adding support for more chains in the future.
Base Batches 002
We know getting started can be difficult. We created Base Batches to provide any builder with a clear path to turn an idea into a product, and then grow that product into a business.
Earlier this year, Base Batches brought together over 5,000 developers from over 100 countries. Of those, 77 teams advanced to the finals, received mentorship, and earned a spot at our inaugural Demo Day. We awarded over $1 million in funding.
Base Batches provides new projects with the stage, tools, and community they need to build useful apps, reach high-quality users, and grow rapidly.
Base Batches 002 launched on September 29th. New this time:
1. Funding, mentoring, and distribution for new developers from day one
2. A global environment where creators and founders can quickly test ideas
3. Showcasing the best projects to the world at Demo Day at Devconnect Argentina
Base App Update
This summer we launched Base, an all-in-one app that combines social networking, app discovery, chat, payments, and transactions. Since launching in invite-only beta in July, the waitlist has grown to over 1 million people, and we're excited to see creators earning revenue while using the app. To date, over $500,000 in creator revenue has been paid out, and over 50% of users who have launched have earned revenue. The Base app was designed with both users and builders in mind: it gives you direct distribution to millions of people and makes it easy to launch, test, and grow your app from day one. This means builders publishing to the Base app instantly have access to an engaged, profitable community of users looking for new experiences. We're still refining the new app experience, constantly listening to feedback, making improvements, and releasing updates. Since July, we've released: • Easier discovery of popular coins • Seamless in-stream trading • Faster performance on Android • A new web experience that lets you share posts anywhere We're expanding access every week, with plans to open apps to everyone later this year. If you're building on Base, now's the time to start building mini apps so you're ready. Over 40% of Base app beta users are already using Mini Apps.
To make building Mini Apps easier, we've launched Base Build, a hub for builders to access user analytics, distribution, and rewards. You can view metrics like active users, session length, and which acquisition channels are performing best. You can also apply for $500 in free gas credits, and more builder rewards are coming soon.
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