Base, the blockchain that Coinbase incubated and closely promotes, introduced at its BaseCamp occasion this week that it’s formally exploring the discharge of a proprietary token regardless of repeated guarantees on the contrary.
That new token removes “any doubts,” in accordance with Alexander Cutler, that Base will surpass Solana and “become the #1 largest chain in the world.”
Cutler is a core contributor to 2 DEXs that take pleasure in a mixed 6% market share of the decentralized alternate trade. He’s additionally a core contributor to Aerodrome, which supplies liquidity on Base, and Velodrome, a prime DEX on the Optimism community on which Base is constructed.
All of his work clearly casts him as a biased forecaster within the eyes of social media and means he’s one in all many Base influencers whose simmering feud with Solana influencers boiled over this week.
Base not solely enjoys the help of the world’s second-largest crypto alternate, Coinbase, but in addition helps memecoins, on-chain exchanges, and wrapped variations of main crypto belongings like ETH.
Solana additionally provides every of these options, that means that Base is an apparent competitor to Solana. That is regardless of Base founder Jesse Pollack’s insistence that the blockchains exist as pleasant, side-by-side ecosystems.
‘If they had it their way, Solana would not exist’
Arguing from the pro-Base camp, Cutler believes Base’s new native token will present “billions of dollars of economic stimulus flowing into the Base ecosystem” and supplant Solana solely.
“If they had it their way, Solana would not exist,” wrote Solana Basis supervisor Vibhu Norby in response to Cutler, clearly not mincing phrases.
Pollack fired again at this declare, pointing to Base’s announcement of a Solana-Base blockchain bridge as proof of cooperation.
Totally unimpressed, Norby retorted, “You didn’t set up a single Solana partner for launch, didn’t talk to Solana Foundation marketing or ops, just dropped a [GitHub] repo.”
Crypto historians shortly took discover and archived the subtextual skirmish between Base and Solana.
Planning for a Base token regardless of years of denials
As Protos summarized after Base unexpectedly launched BASEISFOREVERYONE on April 17, a de facto proprietary token that has crashed 88% from its excessive that day, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Base founder Jesse Pollack swore for years that Base was against any native token launch.
“We do not currently plan to issue a new network token.” — Coinbase, March 2023
“We’re not planning to make any token for Base.” — Brian Armstrong, December 1, 2023
“There are no plans for a Base network token.” — Jesse Pollack, November 30, 2024
“[Base has] no plans for a token.” — Jesse Pollack, April 9, 2025
All of that modified previously few months. Like Solana, which carried out a conventional preliminary coin providing with giant insider allocations for its SOL token, Base is actively exploring issuing a significant token quickly.
