Key facts
- Jesse Pollak has transferred the consumer Base app to trader Cobie.
- Pollak admitted his previous strategy focused on onchain social growth and content coins was incorrect.
- Pollak now aims to make Base the blockchain for global finance.
- Cobie will oversee trading products at Coinbase, including the Base app.
- Base's priorities for 2026 are trading, payments, and agents.
Jesse Pollak, the Coinbase executive who had been leading the Base blockchain's consumer app, has handed over the app to the trader known as Cobie. Pollak admitted that his strategy for 2024-2025, which heavily relied on onchain social growth and the development of creator coins, had failed.
In his announcement, Pollak stated that while he still believes builders will drive adoption, his bet on onchain social growth was incorrect. He noted that the social ecosystem, including platforms like Farcaster and Zora, had "disintegrated completely," causing Base to lag behind competitors in areas such as perpetuals, prediction markets, tokenization, and payments. Pollak issued a public apology, saying, "hopefully we can shut up about content coins now. i was wrong and i’m sorry," echoing similar sentiments from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong earlier in the week.
Pollak's new vision for Base is to establish it as "the blockchain for global finance." He believes that by integrating crypto, stablecoins, perpetuals, prediction markets, and tokenization, Base can attract a billion users. The platform's priorities for 2026 are set to be trading, payments, and agents.
Cobie, who joined Coinbase after his onchain fundraising platform Echo was acquired, will now be responsible for trading products at the company, including the CB app, Pro, and Baseapp. He faces significant competition from centralized exchanges like Kraken, memecoin apps such as Pump Fun, Robinhood's onchain offerings, and prediction market platforms like Kalshi.