Pollak | Crypto

The Coinbase-backed Ethereum layer-2 is preparing to expand its financial offerings as it pivots away from its earlier social-first strategy. Base is close to launching 1:1-backed tokenized equities, according to Jesse Pollak, creator of Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network. Pollak said in a Tuesday X post that Robinhood Chain, the recently launched Ethereum layer 2, had gotten tokenized equities in an EVM environment right, adding that Base was behind on that front. Lazer Technologies head of fintech Garrett Skrovina asked about the timeline for launching 1:1-backed equities on Base, to which Pollak replied: “Imminent — dotting i’s and crossing t’s, but should be very soon.” Read more

Base creator Jesse Pollak is stepping back from leadership of the Base App after admitting he was “definitively wrong” to bet on social experiences driving crypto adoption. Base creator Jesse Pollak says he is stepping back from leading the Base App after admitting he made a “wrong bet” on social, leaving the chain to fall behind on prediction markets and perpetual futures.  In a post to X on Wednesday, Pollak said he had bet that creator, content and messaging apps would drive adoption, but instead the market “disintegrated completely.”  “We realized how our focus on social had meant that base had fallen behind in key areas that were now increasingly critical — we had perps (shoutout avantis!) and prediction markets (shoutout limitless!), but both were well behind scaled competitors.” Read more