Base trading and AI pivot raises questions – ‘Shows weakness as Robinhood Chain takes off’
Base, a Coinbase-incubated Ethereum layer 2 (L2), has announced that it will ditch its initial social push. According to the founder, Jesse Pollak, the social vision was a ‘wrong’ bet, adding that they will focus on other trending segments like trading, payments, and AI agents. In my opinion, we made the right bet on builders, but obviously the wrong bet on social. Source: X Pollak noted that he was betting on builders and on-chain social experiences in the past two years. The latter failed to materialize as expected, including creator coins. In fact, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently acknowledged the same, following strong criticism on the L2s priority. Agree with the first part and your point on content coins. They didnt work, and we pivoted early this year. We messed up, time to turn the page. As part of the pivot, Pollak said he will remain the leader of Base, but the Base app will be steered by crypto investor Jordan Fish, popularly known as Cobie on X. Were going to build Base into the blockchain for global finance. In 2026, this concretely means three things: winning trading, payments, and agents. Will Robinhood Chain flip Base? Interestingly, the pivot followed an aggressive push by Robinhood Chain, another Ethereum L2, that