Base

Base is an Ethereum Layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase and led by Jesse Pollak. Built on the OP Stack, it is designed to bring users and developers onchain with low fees and fast, scalable transactions.

About Base

Base is a Layer-2 blockchain that settles to Ethereum, built on the OP Stack originally developed by Optimism. Coinbase incubated Base and publicly announced it in February 2023, opening the network's mainnet to users later that year. It is led by Jesse Pollak and his team at Coinbase, and speaks through its official account base. Base has not issued a native token — transactions are paid in ETH — though the project has said it is exploring a network token.

Products & Initiatives

Base supports a broad ecosystem of consumer apps, DeFi protocols, NFT projects, and onchain games. Its initiatives include Basenames for onchain identity and developer tooling that pairs onchain deployment with Coinbase-grade onboarding. Descout tracks Base as a distinct network entity — separate from Coinbase the company — and as the ecosystem its creator Jesse Pollak leads.

Partnerships

As a member of the Optimism Superchain, Base shares the OP Stack and a common technical roadmap with other Superchain networks. It remains closely tied to Coinbase, the company that incubated and operates it.

Recent developments

• 2026-10-04 — Base Teases Mystery 'Base Cobalt' Initiative With Cryptic Weekend Post — Base's official account pointed followers to a page for something called 'Base Cobalt' on Oct 4, 2026, pairing a pixelated title card with a link and no technical det… (@base)
• 2026-10-05 — Base Adds 26 Tokenized Stocks for Onchain Trading — Base says 26 new tokenized stocks tied to major global companies are now tradeable on the network, expanding its real-world asset push on the Ethereum Layer-2. (@base)
• 2026-10-07 — Base Partners With SMBC Nikko on Japan Institutional DeFi Gateway — Base is partnering with SMBC Nikko, the securities arm of Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, to build an institutional DeFi Gateway for the Japanese market. (@base)
• 2026-10-06 — Base's Jesse Pollak Courts Chains Considering a Shutdown — Base lead Jesse Pollak publicly invited chains weighing a wind-down to reach out, pitching Base's asset coverage, borrow and earn markets, and cheap blockspace as a migration path. (@jessepollak)
• 2026-10-09 — Base Tokenized Stocks Climb From 4 to 250 Tickers, Pollak Says — Base lead Jesse Pollak shared a chart showing tokenized stock listings on the network growing from 4 at launch to roughly 250 by the end of October, with about 120 added in O… (@jessepollak)
• 2026-10-10 — Base Adds 19 Tokenized Stocks, Reports 500M in Weekly Volume — Base's Oct. 10 recap says 19 new Coinbase Tokenized Stocks are live on the network — including SONYc, NOKc and SAPc — alongside 500M in tokenized-stock trading volume. (@base)
• 2026-10-10 — Jesse Pollak Says Base 'Will Be the Global Stock Market' — Base lead Jesse Pollak framed the network's ambition as becoming the global stock market, after 19 tokenized equities — none American — were listed over the weekend. (@jessepollak)
• 2026-10-09 — Coinbase, Gennius Bring ONED USD Stablecoin to LatAm Banks via Base — Coinbase and Gennius are rolling out ONED USD, issued via Coinbase Custom Stablecoins, to Latin American banks starting in Argentina, enabling 24/7 transfers and Visa sp… (@base)
• 2026-10-13 — Base Rolls Out Earn & Borrow Stablecoin Yield and Lending Stack — Base announced Earn & Borrow on Oct. 13, 2026, an end-to-end stack that lets apps offer customers stablecoin yield and loans against their crypto. Details remain limited. (@base)
• 2026-10-15 — Base Highlights Tokenized Stocks Push as Aerodrome Hits 100M Daily Volume — Base shares AGM remarks on tokenized stock launch, noting Aerodrome's first 100M trading day and teasing further upside from retail app integration. (@base)

Coverage

• 2026-07-18 — Base Creator Jesse Pollak Hands App to Cobie, Bets on Global Finance
• 2026-07-20 — Inside Base's x402 Rail and Its New Push to Fund Onchain Finance
• 2026-08-04 — Base Ships Azul and Beryl Under the Base Stack; Cobalt Due in September
• 2026-09-24 — SEC's Innovation Exemption Lands as Base Says Tokenized Stocks Cross $1B
• 2026-10-03 — Base's Cobalt Upgrade Ships Validity Transactions, B20 Compliance Tools
• 2026-10-12 — Base's week: stock tickers, a Japan MOU and a pitch to chains winding down
• 2026-10-13 — ONED USD Explained: Gennius's Dollar Token on Base
• 2026-10-15 — How borrowing against tokenized stocks works on Base

Base ships protocol changes as named hard forks. The Cobalt fork activated on Base mainnet on 2026-09-30 at 18:00 UTC, and its scale was visible from outside the network: centralized exchanges including Binance paused Base deposits and withdrawals across the activation window, which is the usual operational signature of a consensus-affecting upgrade rather than a routine release.

Cobalt carried two distinct kinds of change. The first is transaction-level: conditional validity transactions, which let a transaction's inclusion depend on stated conditions, plus a reworked proving path that verifies AWS Nitro attestations onchain in place of the previous external proving flow. The second is upgrade automation, allowing node software changes to be coordinated through an Ethereum smart contract rather than by off-chain release coordination alone.

The remainder of Cobalt extended B20, and the distinction matters. B20 is Base's native token standard — a specification that individual tokens implement — and it is not this entity. Cobalt extended it with composite policies (letting an issuer compose constraints rather than apply a single rule), scheduled multiplier updates, a seizure operation that records a memo, and fee payment denominated in B20 assets rather than the network's gas asset. Coverage that links a B20 change to this page is describing a facet of the protocol, not an action by the organization.

A further fork named Denim has been reported as scheduled for October 2026, introducing native blocks at a roughly 200-millisecond cadence and millisecond time resolution through BaseTime and millisecond-precision RPC timestamps. The activation dates circulating for Denim do not currently agree across sources, so no Denim date should be asserted without a first-party release note.

SMBC Nikko DeFi gateway (MOU)

On October 2, 2026, SMBC Nikko Securities, Nethermind, Uniswap Labs, Base and Nyx Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding to build a DeFi gateway for Japanese investors, with a target of mid-2027. The plan uses Uniswap v4 hooks to build compliance controls, including anti-money-laundering checks, into the liquidity pools themselves.

SMBC Nikko and Nethermind lead the work, on regulation and on technical design respectively. Base's stated role is to support deployment on its network and give technical feedback on x402, the payment protocol developed by Coinbase. Progress is to be shared with Japan's Financial Services Agency. The agreement is a statement of intent: no product has launched.

Coinbase Tokenized Stocks on Base

Coinbase Tokenized Stocks are onchain shares issued by Coinbase on Base. Base's stocks page says they are offered under Regulation S and are "only available in eligible jurisdictions outside of the US." When read on October 12, 2026, the page listed ten tickers, among them NVDAc, AAPLc and TSLAc.

On October 9, 2026, Base lead Jesse Pollak posted "4→40→250 stocks on base this month" with a chart. Base's October 10 weekly update said 19 new Coinbase Tokenized Stocks had gone live and reported 500 million in trading volume on them. Base has not said how many of the 250 in Pollak's post are live, and its stocks page gives no target.