JESSE POLLAK, creator of Base, has stepped down from leading the platform, admitting that prioritizing social applications over financial services caused the network to fall behind in perpetual futures and prediction markets.
Pollak said on X that he believed content and messaging apps would drive adoption on Base. That bet did not pay off. "We spent a lot of time on social," he said, acknowledging the lost ground.
Base had launched Limitless for prediction markets and Avantis for perpetual contracts. Both languish against larger competitors. Dune Analytics data shows Limitless captured only 0.5 percent of total monthly notional volume across all prediction markets in July. Avantis ranks 18th by 30-day notional volume among perpetual platforms, per DeFiLlama.
Pollak said the realization prompted a strategic shift earlier this year. Base is now prioritizing financial applications—trading, payments, AI agents—over social experiences like Farcaster and Zora.
Coinbase, Base's parent company, will assume development of the Base app. Cobie will lead the effort with a mandate to make it a top on-chain application. The redesigned app will extend beyond the Base ecosystem.
Pollak acknowledged in his statement that he "probably won't like" the expanded scope as a former leader. His departure follows comments by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said content-focused crypto initiatives had underperformed and cited community feedback on Base support priorities.
The shift reflects broader market signals: users have moved decisively toward financial primitives. Prediction markets and decentralized perpetual platforms have become core infrastructure. Base missed that window.
