At last night's BaseCamp, Base founder Jesse Pollak stated that Base is "exploring" the launch of a native token. Subsequently, Coinbase's co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong posted, "We are exploring the issuance of a native token for the Base network."

It could become a key tool to accelerate decentralization and drive growth of creators and developers within the ecosystem. It is important to note that there are currently no concrete plans. We are just updating our vision. So far, we are still in the exploration phase."

This announcement signifies a shift in Coinbase's stance on whether Base will introduce a token.

Previously, Coinbase representatives had repeatedly stated that Base had no plans to issue a token, and currently, Base uses ETH as Gas. The team also emphasized in Monday's blog that there are currently "no specific plans to share externally."

"Base is a bridge, not an island," Pollak said at the BaseCamp event held in Stowe, Vermont, expressing his hope that Base can form a closer connection with the broader Ethereum ecosystem.

Why Launch a Token?

"When Base launched, our primary task was clear: to build a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. To achieve these goals, issuing a token was not necessary, so we focused on the core product." The team had written in a blog. However, today, the market environment seems to have quietly changed.

Since its launch in 2023, Base has achieved several milestones in the past year, such as achieving "sub-second, sub-dollar transactions." It is worth noting that after introducing a permissionless proof-of-stake mechanism and following Vitalik Buterin's proposed Rollup decentralization framework, Base has entered the "first stage."

To outsiders, Base's exploration of token launch this time seems to have clear real-world considerations behind it.

Over the past few months, Base's liquidity has been rapidly shrinking. Data shows that the net outflow size in the past three quarters reached $46 billion, with a total outflow of $57 billion for the whole year, primarily flowing back to the Ethereum mainnet. Although TVL is still growing on the surface, in terms of ETH pricing, funds have been steadily flowing out as early as April this year, lacking true long-term retention.

During this period, although there were no shortage of hot events such as TBA releases and Coinbase integrating a DEX, most of them were short-lived and failed to create lasting user stickiness and wealth effects. Analysts believe that Zora's "Three-Coin Flywheel" has never truly spun, Virtual's exit from the circle has not received the same level of ecosystem support, and Base has long lacked killer applications strong enough to support the ecosystem.

Against this market background, the team realized that relying solely on the Coinbase brand and traffic influx was no longer sufficient to support the network's long-term development. Token issuance thus became a natural option—not only could it more effectively anchor funds on Base, avoiding becoming a "way station," but it could also help convert short-term speculators into long-term stakeholders, provide more certain long-term incentives for quality developers, drive more infrastructure and innovative applications to fruition.

As the team put it, "Exploring network issuance is one of the paths to realizing the vision of a global on-chain economy," this move embodies both the acceleration of decentralization goals and a response to the real needs of the ecosystem expansion for incentive mechanisms.

Furthermore, from a regulatory perspective, the Trump administration has placed cryptocurrency at the core of its policies and encouraged regulatory agencies to create space for innovation and experimentation, which has also reduced resistance for Coinbase to pursue coin issuance at the compliance level. Meanwhile, Base's integration into the Solana ecosystem through an open cross-chain bridge demonstrates its strategic positioning as "Base is a bridge, not an island."

It is thus evident that coin issuance is not just a tactical adjustment but a long-termist choice that deeply binds the team, users, developers, and capital, aiming to build a true ecosystem synergy that can self-perpetuate and solidify value.

Below is the translation of the content into English:

Base at BaseCamp 2025 Status

At BaseCamp 2025 in Stowe, Vermont, we shared an update: Base has started exploring network tokens. As we began this exploration, we shared this shift in thinking early—it is part of our commitment to open development, but we don't have concrete plans to share at this time. We also announced an open-source bridge built by Base, connecting Base and Solana to achieve interoperability between the two chains. Additionally, there are new features to make building, growing, and earning on Base easier, including Base Batches 002 to help builders turn ideas into reality, more features in the Base App Beta, and a new Base Build dashboard for builder growth and earnings.

Exploring Network Tokens

Until now, Base has not considered issuing a network token.

Upon launch, our priorities were clear: to build a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly chain and ecosystem. Issuing a token was not necessary to achieve these goals, and we wanted to focus on our core product.

This year, we achieved our North Star goal of sub-second, sub-penny transactions and have expanded from a single chain to an open stack, enabling anyone to easily build, transact, and earn on-chain.

As we look ahead to building a global on-chain economy, we believe it should be open and accessible. As the ecosystem grows and community engagement deepens, this has prompted us to reconsider our ideals. Exploring network tokens is one path to realizing our vision of a global on-chain economy, with the Base network token having the potential to accelerate Base's decentralization and expand opportunities for builders and creators across the entire ecosystem.

We are still in the early stages of exploration, with no specific details to share at this time regarding timing, design, or governance. As we consider various possibilities, we have three commitments to the community:

1. We remain deeply committed to Ethereum and will continue to build on Ethereum.

2. As a U.S.-based company, we are committed to working with regulatory bodies and legislators to do this the right way.

3. We are committed to having the community alongside us, engaging openly, listening, and learning as we build.

If we do move forward with a token, it will be based on principles, values, and aligned with our long-term mission: to build a global economy that fosters innovation, creativity, and freedom.

Other Announcements from BaseCamp 2025

At BaseCamp, we also shared significant updates on how to help the ecosystem progress. Overall, our goal is to make Base the best place to build, grow, and thrive.

The Bridge Between Base and Solana

We believe Base should be a bridge, not an island. If everyone is building independent, isolated ecosystems, we cannot bring the world onto the chain. We want Base to be the hub of the entire on-chain economy, serving as the universal chain where you can do anything from payments to transactions, from building apps to social posting.

We also believe that the global economy must be interoperable and connected. Users should be able to discover new applications, try new things, and unlock value anywhere value exists, and builders should be able to seamlessly cross-link to users.

This is why we are excited to announce the bridge between Base and Solana.

This bridge allows you to seamlessly move assets across chains by bridging between ERC20 and SPL tokens, so you can do things like:

• Deposit and use SOL in any Base application

• Bring any Solana asset into any Base application

• Export any Base asset to Solana

This means builders can access more users and liquidity, and users can more easily access the global on-chain economy. This bridge is now open source on Github, available on the testnet, and will go live on mainnet in the coming weeks. This is just the beginning. Our goal is to make Base a hub of interoperability for the global on-chain economy, and we will add support for more chains in the future.

Base Batches 002

We know getting started can be tough. We created Base Batches to provide a clear path for any builder to turn ideas into products and then develop those products into businesses.

Earlier this year, Base Batches brought together over 5,000 developers from 100+ countries. Of these, 77 teams made it to the finals, received mentorship, and earned a spot in our first demo day. We awarded over $1 million in funding.

Base Batches provide a stage, tools, and community for new projects that they need to build useful applications, reach high-quality users, and grow quickly.

Base Batches 002 launched on September 29. This iteration includes:

1. Funding, mentorship, and distribution for new developers from day one

2. A global environment for creators and founders to quickly test ideas

3. Showcase of the best projects to the world at Argentina Devconnect's demo day

Base App Updates

This summer, we launched the Base app, a universal app that combines social networking, app discovery, chat, payments, and transactions in one. Since its invite-only beta launch in July, the waitlist has grown to over 1 million people, and we are excited to see creators earning revenue from using the app. So far, over $500,000 has been paid out in creator earnings, with over 50% of active users earning revenue.

The design of the Base App considers both users and builders: it provides you with a direct channel to distribute to millions of people, allowing you to easily launch, test, and grow your app from day one. This means that builders releasing on the Base App can immediately tap into an engaged, profitable, and experience-hungry user community.

We are continuing to refine the new app experience, constantly listening to feedback, making improvements, and releasing updates. Since July, we have released:

• Easier discovery of popular currencies

• Seamless in-feed transactions

• Faster performance on Android

• A new web experience allowing you to share posts from anywhere

We are expanding access every week and plan to open the app to everyone later this year. If you are building on Base, now is the time to start building mini-apps so you are ready. Over 40% of Base App beta users are already using mini-apps.

To make building mini-apps easier, we have introduced Base Build, a hub for builders to access user analytics, distribution, and rewards. You can see metrics like active users, session time, top-performing user acquisition channels, and apply for $500 in free gas credits, with more builder rewards coming soon.

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