Base Founder: Betting on On-Chain Social Was a Mistake, Will Focus on Trading, Payments, and AI Agents

Odaily Odaily reports that Base founder Jesse Pollak published a review of the past two years of development, acknowledging that his previous bet on on-chain native social was a mistake. He stated that social directions like Farcaster, Zora, Miniapps, and creator coins have failed to become the core drivers of crypto adoption, and as a result, Base has fallen behind some competitors in areas such as perpetual contracts, prediction markets, tokenization, and payments.

Pollak stated that going forward, Base will position itself as the "blockchain for global finance," focusing on three key directions in 2026: trading, payments, and AI agents. Specifically, trading will cover tokenized stocks, Meme coins, and application tokens; payments will revolve around global stablecoins for individuals and businesses; and AI agents will leverage cryptocurrency as the native money for computers, serving participants in the future large-scale machine economy.

Furthermore, the Base application will be handed back to the Coinbase team, with Cobie taking over to drive it forward, and it may expand beyond the Base ecosystem. Pollak also stated that Base will continue to support developers through Base Layer, Base Batches, the ecosystem fund, and Coinbase distribution resources.