Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has called time on Base’s content coin era, telling critics the experiments did not work and that the network pivoted away from them earlier this year.
Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network Coinbase launched in 2023, spent much of the past year chasing onchain trends. The bets pulled users in, then left many holding losses. Four stand out.
Four Onchain Bets That Missed
Zora: Base championed the content-coin app for more than a year, letting users mint social posts as tradable tokens. Activity spiked during , yet critics say it never built a durable base of users.
Creator coins: The network let fans buy tokens tied to individual creators, and even urged funds to . Critics say some creators carried weak track records, and users took the hit when prices faded.
Team-backed tokens: Coins linked to former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and Base creator Jesse Pollak drew crowds, then losses. One critic argued that the same users kept eating the downside on team-promoted tokens.
The social-first Base App: Coinbase pitched the revamped app as a do-everything hub, but builders said it shipped features users never asked for. Armstrong recast it as a trading-focused, self-custodial version of Coinbase that made every Base token tradable.
Armstrong Calls Time on Base’s Content Coins
Armstrong answered the criticism directly, agreeing that content coins had run their course.
“Agree with the first part and your point on content coins. They didn’t work and we pivoted early this year. We messed up, time to turn the page,” he wrote in a Monday post.
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The retreat tracked a sharp pullback in activity. Base’s total value locked slid from about $5.3 billion in January to roughly $3.9 billion by mid-February. That $1.4 billion drop landed during a wider rift over Base’s strategy. As of this writing, Base TVL stood at $4.37 billion.
He says most resources now go to trading, ahead of payments and agents. He also rejects the idea that Base is chasing AI agents. That focus has not spared the core business. Coinbase revenue fell 31% to $1.41 billion last quarter as spot trading dropped 37%.
Whether a trading-first Base can win back users burned by the earlier bets is the open question. Armstrong offered to hear critics out directly.