Base creator Jesse Pollak says he’s stepping back from running the Base app after admitting he made a “bad bet” on social media, causing the network to lag in forecast and futures markets.
In a post to X on Wednesday, Pollak he said he bet that creator apps, content and messaging would drive adoption, but instead the market “completely fell apart.”
“We realized that our focus on social media meant that the base was falling behind in key areas that were now increasingly critical – we had culprits (hello, avantis!) and prediction markets (hello, limitless!), but both were far behind scalable competitors.”
Dune analytics can be seen Limitless’s underlying forecast market accounted for just 0.5% of total monthly nominal volume in forecast markets in July. Avantis perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) ranks 18th in terms of reported 30-day nominal trading volume, According to to DefiLlam.
Pollak’s comments provide greater insight into Base’s reversal of its growth strategy earlier this year. While Base initially focused on social products like Farcaster, Zora and mini-apps to bring cryptocurrencies to “a billion people,” Pollak said financial apps are the future of the web, with a focus on commerce, payments and AI agents.
Limitless Exchange’s monthly nominal volume is only a fraction of that of its larger competitors. Source: Dune analytics
Pollak added that leadership of the base application will return to Coinbase under Jordan Fish, known on X as “Cobie,” while focusing on the Base blockchain.
Coinbase CEO: ‘We failed’ on content coins
Pollak’s post comes just days after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong admitted that content coins “don’t work,” prompting the company to make a change earlier this year.
“We messed up, it’s time to turn the page” – Armstrong he said on Monday.
In February, Base is phasing out its Creator Rewards program and Farcaster-powered social channels as part of a strategic transition to tradable assets.
Related: Moonbeam moves from Polkadot to Base and introduces its AI agent platform
The Creator Rewards program launched in July 2025 and aimed to make Ethereum Layer-2 Base a more social ecosystem where activity and engagement translate into earnings. Meanwhile, Pollak admitted that the base app was an “imperfect Farcaster client.”
Basecoin operation, AI agents
Last week, Base activated his B20 token standard on the mainnet, introducing a native framework for stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and other fungible tokens.
In May, Base launched the Base MCP (Model Context Protocol) tool, which allows users Manage your cryptocurrencies directly from the AI model chat interface and interact with cryptographic protocols such as Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr and Virtuals.
In April, Base said it was modernizing key systems in preparation for the AI agent economy Action plan for 2026. He highlighted that real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins and prediction markets are key growth areas in 2026.
“We intend to build a blockchain base for global finance, and we will do everything we can to be the place where the world’s money is settled for the next century,” Pollak said Wednesday.
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