Why is Base issuing a token?
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Why is Base issuing a token?
Base is a bridge, not an island.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Blockbeats
At last night's BaseCamp, Base founder Jesse Pollak said that Base is "beginning to explore" launching a native token. Shortly after, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted, "We are exploring issuing 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 concrete plans yet. We're simply updating our thinking. For now, we remain in the exploration phase."
This announcement marks a shift in Coinbase's stance on whether Base will launch a token.
Previously, Coinbase representatives repeatedly stated that Base had no plans to issue a token, with ETH currently used as gas on Base. The team also emphasized in a blog post on Monday that there is currently "no definitive plan to share externally."
"Base is a bridge, not an island," Pollak said at the BaseCamp conference held in Stowe, Vermont, expressing his hope that Base can form tighter connections with the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Why Issue a Token?
"When Base launched, our priority was clear: build a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. Issuing a token wasn't necessary to achieve these goals, so we focused on the core product," the team wrote in a blog post. But now, market conditions appear to have quietly changed.
Since its launch in 2023, Base has achieved several milestones over the past year, including enabling "sub-second, sub-cent level transactions." Notably, after implementing permissionless fraud proofs, Base has entered the "first stage" under Vitalik Buterin's proposed rollup decentralization framework.
To outside observers, Base’s move into token exploration reflects clear practical considerations.
Over recent months, Base’s liquidity has rapidly shrunk. Data shows net outflows reaching $4.6 billion over the past three quarters, with cumulative annual outflows totaling $5.7 billion—mostly flowing back to the Ethereum mainnet. Although TVL appears to grow on the surface, when measured in ETH terms, funds have been consistently exiting since April this year, lacking real long-term retention.
While notable events such as TBA launches and Coinbase integrating DEX occurred during this period, most were short-lived, failing to generate lasting user stickiness or wealth effects. Analysts believe Zora's "three-token flywheel" has never truly spun up, and breakout projects like Virtual did not receive equivalent ecosystem support. Base has long lacked a killer application strong enough to sustain its ecosystem.
In this context, the team realizes that user growth driven solely by Coinbase's brand and traffic is no longer sufficient to support the network's long-term development. Token issuance thus becomes a natural option—not only to more effectively lock capital onto Base and avoid becoming a mere "transit station," but also to convert short-term speculators into long-term stakeholders, while providing reliable long-term incentives for high-quality developers and encouraging the deployment of more infrastructure and innovative applications.
As the team put it, "exploring the issuance of a network token is one path toward realizing a global on-chain economy"—a move that carries both the goal of accelerating decentralization and responds to the ecosystem's real need for incentive mechanisms amid expansion.
Additionally, from a regulatory perspective, the Trump administration has placed cryptocurrency at the center of policy and encouraged regulators to create space for innovation and experimentation, reducing compliance hurdles for Coinbase to move forward with token issuance. At the same time, Base's open cross-chain bridge connecting to the Solana ecosystem demonstrates its strategic positioning of "Base as a bridge, not an island."
Thus, issuing a token is not merely a tactical adjustment, but a long-termist choice to deeply align teams, users, developers, and capital—aiming to build a self-sustaining ecosystem capable of true value accumulation and circular growth.
Below is the English content translation:
Where Base Stands at BaseCamp 2025
At BaseCamp 2025 in Stowe, Vermont, we shared an update: Base is beginning to explore a network token. By sharing this shift in thinking early in the exploration process, we're living up to our commitment to building openly—but right now, we have no definite plans to share. We also announced an open-source bridge built by Base connecting Base and Solana to enable interoperability between the two chains. In addition, new features make it easier than ever to build, grow, and earn on Base, including Base Batches 002 to help builders turn ideas into reality, expanded capabilities in the Base app beta, and a new Base Build dashboard to help builders grow and earn.
Exploring a Network Token
Until now, Base has not considered issuing a network token.
When Base launched, our priorities were clear: 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 the core product.
This year, we've achieved our North Star goal of sub-second, sub-cent level transactions, and we've evolved from a single chain into an open stack that makes it simple for anyone to build, transact, and earn onchain.
As we look ahead to 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 reevaluate our thinking. Exploring a network token is one path toward realizing our vision of a global on-chain economy. A Base network token has the potential to accelerate Base's decentralization and expand opportunities for builders and creators across the entire ecosystem.
We are in the early stages of exploration and have no specific details to share regarding timing, design, or governance. As we consider various possibilities, we make three commitments to the community:
1. We remain deeply committed to Ethereum and will continue building on Ethereum.
2. As a U.S. company, we are committed to working with regulators and lawmakers to do this the right way.
3. We are committed to bringing the community along with us—we are building in public, listening, and learning.
If we move forward with a token, it will be grounded in principles, values, and aligned with our long-term mission: building a global economy that increases innovation, creativity, and freedom.
Other Announcements 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.
Bridge Between Base and Solana
We believe Base should be a bridge, not an island. If everyone builds isolated, siloed ecosystems, we won’t bring the world onchain. We want Base to be the hub of the entire on-chain economy—a general-purpose chain where you can do anything, from payments to trading, from building apps to social posting.
We also believe the global economy must be interoperable and connected. Users should be able to discover new apps, try new things, and unlock value wherever it exists. Builders should be able to seamlessly reach users across chains.
That’s why we’re excited to announce a bridge between Base and Solana.
This bridge allows seamless cross-chain movement by bridging assets between ERC20 and SPL tokens, enabling you to:
• Deposit and use SOL in any Base app
• Bring any Solana asset into any Base app
• Export any Base asset to Solana
This means builders gain access to more users and liquidity, while users can more easily access the global on-chain economy. The bridge is now open-source on GitHub and available on testnet, with mainnet launch coming in the next few weeks. This is just the beginning. Our goal is to make Base the interoperable hub of the global on-chain economy, and we’ll add support for more chains in the future.
Base Batches 002
We know getting started can be hard. That’s why we created Base Batches—to give any builder a clear path to turn ideas into products, and products into businesses.
Earlier this year, Base Batches brought together over 5,000 developers from more than 100 countries. Of those, 77 teams advanced to the finals, received mentorship, and earned a spot at our first 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 quality users, and grow quickly.
Base Batches 002 launches on September 29. New additions this time include:
1. Funding, mentorship, and distribution for new builders from day one
2. A global environment where creators and founders can quickly test ideas
3. A Demo Day at Devconnect Argentina to showcase top projects to the world
Base App Updates
This summer we launched the Base app, a general-purpose app combining social networking, app discovery, chat, payments, and trading. Since launching in July as an invite-only beta, the waitlist has grown to over 1 million people, and we’re excited to see creators earning as they use the app. So far, over $500,000 in creator earnings have been paid out, with more than 50% of publishing users receiving payouts.
The Base app is designed with both users and builders in mind: it gives you direct distribution to millions, making it easy to launch, test, and scale your app from day one. This means builders who publish to the Base app immediately gain access to a highly engaged, monetizing, experience-seeking user community.
We’re still refining the new app experience, continuously listening to feedback, making improvements, and rolling out updates. Since July, we’ve released:
• Easier discovery of trending tokens
• Seamless in-feed trading
• Faster performance on Android
• A new web experience allowing you to share posts anywhere
We’re expanding access weekly and plan to open the app to everyone later this year. If you're building on Base, now is 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 launched Base Build—a central hub for builders to access user analytics, distribution, and rewards. You can view metrics like active users, session duration, and which acquisition channels perform best, plus apply for $500 in free gas credits. More builder rewards are coming soon.
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