Base's week: stock tickers, a Japan MOU and a pitch to chains winding down

Base lead Jesse Pollak posted a chart on Oct. 9 captioned "4→40→250 stocks on base this month." The slide, from Pollak's TOKEN2049 talk, is headed "Tokenized stocks on Base, cumulative tickers" and reads "250 by the end of October, from 4 at launch on Aug 24." Its plotted points are labelled 4 (August), 10 (September), about 120 (October) and 250. Three other items from the same week show what Base is attaching to that count: a lending-yield product, a Japanese securities-firm project, and an open offer to chains winding down.

What the 250 counts

The 250 is a ticker count, and the slide dates it to the end of October, which had not arrived when Pollak posted. The Block reported on Oct. 9 that Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on Base six weeks earlier, "with about $70 million to $100 million in daily trading volume, 50 stocks listed, and 250 expected by the end of the month, according to Pollak." That wording makes 250 an expected end-of-month figure, not a count of tokens listed today. The sources give different listed counts: the slide labels about 120 for October, The Block's account has 50, and MapKa wrote on Oct. 10 of "50 stocks listed going into this batch." We do not reconcile them. The caption gives a third set of numbers (4, 40, 250), and the slide does not say who issues the tickers.

A separate batch followed that evening. On Oct. 9 @base posted "More tokenized stocks, just in time for the weekend," with an image; the post's text gives no count and names no stocks. Its Oct. 10 weekly recap says "19 new Coinbase Tokenized Stocks are now live on Base including SONYc, NOKc, SAPc, and more" and does not say where the companies are based. MapKa listed 19 tickers, among them ARMc, SANc and NVOc, and wrote "not one american company." By that account the 19 are non-American companies. Pollak quote-posted MapKa's thread on Oct. 10 with "base will be the global stock market." The thread carries the 50-listed and 250 figures; his line does not address them.

The count is a different metric from volume. In our Sept. 24 analysis, Base said Coinbase's tokenized stocks had crossed $1 billion, and Crypto Briefing reported that figure as 30-day rolling DEX volume. A ticker count says how many names exist, not how much trades in them. Two newer volume figures circulate. MapKa wrote "$70-100m a day in volume, per jessepollak at token2049," and The Block's report carries the same range; both are secondhand accounts of Pollak's remarks, and we did not find the figure in a post by Pollak. base's Oct. 10 recap says "Base reached $500M in trading volume on Coinbase Tokenized Stocks last week." It gives no dates for "last week." Crypto Briefing reported on Oct. 8 that Base announced "$500 million in trading volume for the prior week," without quoting the announcement; we do not reconcile the two. Base's own stocks page, which describes Coinbase Tokenized Stocks as "offered under Regulation S; only available in eligible jurisdictions outside of the US," listed ten tickers on Oct. 10, from NVDAc to TSLAc, and the same ten on Oct. 11. On Oct. 5, @base posted that "26 new tokenized stocks are now available." Neither the post's text nor the page names the 26, and ten listed plus 26 announced makes 36. The page also says: "If a token is not on this list, Coinbase did not issue it." No source we found names the issuers or tickers behind the roughly 120 and 250 figures on Pollak's slide.

Superform: one live vault, six to follow

On Oct. 6, Superform announced (quoted in a Pollak post) "Earn Stocks. DeFi yield strategies on NVDA, TSLA, GOOGL, and other MAG 7 stocks," "Live today on base and powered by [Aave]." Pollak's own line was "one tap earn on any stock on base." Superform's press release, datelined Oct. 6, is narrower: "superNVDA" is active, with TSLA, MSFT, META, AAPL, AMZN and GOOGL versions "activated in phases." Each vault posts a Coinbase Tokenized Stock as collateral in "Aave V4's Equities Hub on Base and borrows USDC," then deploys the USDC where its mandate permits. The release says superNVDA's pre-deposit "attracted nearly 10% of all NVDAc issued on Base" and warns that "returns are variable and subject to borrowing-rate, liquidity, market, oracle, smart-contract, and liquidation risk." It gives no TVL or cap. The B20 token standard these stocks use is covered in our Cobalt analysis; Aave is the lending venue.

SMBC Nikko: a memorandum with a mid-2027 target

On Oct. 7 @base wrote: "Institutions are building on Base. We're partnering with SMBC Nikko to build an institutional DeFi Gateway for Japan." The project was first announced five days earlier. Uniswap's Oct. 2 post said SMBC Nikko "is building a new trading venue on Uniswap" with "Launching onchain mid-2027." Uniswap's blog says SMBC Nikko and Nethermind are building it, and that "Uniswap Labs, Base, and Nyx Foundation are supporting development," with "completion is targeted for mid-2027." Base is one of five parties, in a supporting role. Crypto Briefing reports the parties signed a memorandum of understanding, and crypto.news notes the project will share progress with regulators including the FSA, and that this "does not amount to regulatory approval." We could not open SMBC Nikko's own release, so the MOU wording rests on those reports.

The pitch to chains winding down

On Oct. 6, about three hours after Abstract said it "is winding down" and "will shut down on December 15th, 2026," Pollak posted: "If you're running a chain and thinking about winding down, reach out. Base can offer what you need, at lower cost, with a better experience for your users." He listed "Every asset to trade," "Deep borrow/earn markets" and "Fast, cheap, trustworthy blockspace," and ended "We want to build with you." The post names no chain.

Two Abstract projects have since named Base. Anichess wrote on Oct. 8: "Anichess already lives on Base, so your games carry on exactly as they are." On Oct. 9, Cambria's founder BEN.ZZZ posted: "RSGP ([Cambria]) is coming to Base." Neither post mentions Pollak's offer, and the Cambria post covers the $RSGP token only.

What to watch

The items split by status. The Superform product has a live vault, with six more promised. The SMBC Nikko gateway is a memorandum with a target date. The chain pitch is an invitation. The ticker chart is a count whose end-of-October figure is still ahead.

• Whether the ticker count Base reports by Oct. 31 matches 250, and whether Base says which issuers sit behind it.
• Whether Superform activates the six remaining vaults, and what TVL it publishes.
• Whether SMBC Nikko or the FSA publishes anything beyond the mid-2027 target.
• Whether any chain operator answers Pollak's post in public.

No source names the issuers behind the roughly 120 and 250 tickers on Pollak's slide, or says what the Japan gateway would settle on Base.