Base Hands App Operations to Cobie, Stripe's $53 Billion Acquisition of PayPal May Create the King of Stablecoins
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Base Hands App Operations to Cobie, Stripe's $53 Billion Acquisition of PayPal May Create the King of Stablecoins
The power of crypto infrastructure is being restructured.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthors: TylerD, Morning Minute
Compiled by: TechFlow
TechFlow Editor's Note: This week, the crypto world witnessed two structural signals: Base (Coinbase L2) handed its official App to renowned trader Cobie to operate, and founder Jesse Pollak publicly admitted "the content coin strategy failed"; meanwhile, Stripe bid for PayPal with $53 billion, aiming to merge its Bridge and Tempo stablecoin channels with PayPal's PYUSD—both news items point to the same main theme: power in crypto infrastructure is restructuring, shifting from "social narrative" to "financial utility," and the entry of payment giants will reshape the stablecoin landscape.
Base Hands App to Cobie: Jesse Pollak Admits "I Was Wrong"
Jesse Pollak, the Coinbase executive who has consistently led Base chain development, has handed the consumer-facing Base App back to Coinbase, entrusting its operation to renowned trader Cobie.
Cobie joined the company after Coinbase acquired his on-chain fundraising platform Echo; Pollak stated he will now focus on the Base chain itself rather than the App.
In the announcement, Pollak admitted his 2024-2025 strategy was based on two judgments: builders would drive adoption, and growth would come from on-chain social.
He still stands by the first judgment, but the second—he frankly admitted was wrong.
The social sectors he vigorously promoted, including Farcaster, Zora, Mini Apps, and creator coins, have in his view "completely collapsed", causing Base to lag behind competitors in areas such as perpetual contracts, prediction markets, tokenization, and payments.
Pollak publicly apologized: "Hope we can stop discussing content coins now. I was wrong, I'm sorry."
This statement echoed Brian Armstrong's comments earlier this week—he admitted Base "messed up" on content coins.
Pollak now wants to build Base into a "global financial blockchain", believing the combination of crypto, stablecoins, perpetual contracts, prediction markets, and tokenization can bring 1 billion people on-chain.
He has set trading, payments, and agents as Base's three priority directions for 2026.
As for Cobie, he will be responsible for Coinbase's trading products (CB App / Pro / Base App).
But he faces multiple competitive pressures: CEXs like Kraken are actively expanding before a potential IPO; Meme coin Apps like Pump Fun and Fomo already have hundreds of thousands of users; Robinhood itself offers competing products and sparked significant attention on-chain last week; Kalshi is expanding prediction markets into the perpetual contracts sector.
The road ahead is difficult, but if anyone in the crypto world is up to the task, Cobie might be the best choice.
Stripe Bids $53 Billion for PayPal: King of Stablecoins May Be Born
While Base shifts strategy, a larger structural change has appeared in the payment sector.
Stripe partnered with Advent to propose a $53 billion acquisition offer, targeting PayPal directly.
The core logic of this deal lies in the integration of stablecoin infrastructure.
Stripe owns Bridge (stablecoin payment rail) and Tempo (stablecoin settlement channel), while PayPal operates the PYUSD stablecoin.
If the acquisition is completed, Stripe will simultaneously control the issuance end (PYUSD) and circulation end (Bridge + Tempo) of stablecoins, forming a complete closed loop from issuance to settlement.
This means a payment giant will possess full-stack capabilities for stablecoins—not simply supporting stablecoin payments, but becoming an infrastructure provider for the stablecoin ecosystem.
Against the backdrop of white-hot competition in the current stablecoin sector (Circle's USDC, Tether's USDT, PayPal's PYUSD each occupying a side), the Stripe-PayPal merger could spawn a "King of Stablecoins" backed by a payment giant.
The Same Main Thread: Power Restructuring of Infrastructure
Base shifted its App from social narrative to financial utility, Stripe upgraded from payment channel to stablecoin full-stack via acquiring PayPal—on the surface these are two independent news items, but the underlying narrative is consistent: power in crypto infrastructure is shifting from "narrative-driven" to "utility-driven".
The wave of social coins and content coins of 2024-2025 is receding, replaced by competition in trading, payments, and financial tools.
And when payment giants begin using acquisitions to integrate the stablecoin ecosystem, this sector is no longer a game for startups—it is part of the power restructuring of the global financial system.
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