Base, the Coinbase-sponsored second layer blockchain for Ethereum that prided itself on not having a proprietary token, has launched a proprietary token.
After a quick rally of two hours on its shock announcement, the newly minted BASEISFOREVERYONE memecoin crashed 88% inside two minutes.
Then, at 4:30pm, somebody determined to drag the rug out from beneath patrons, and inside seven minutes, its value crashed 94%.
It has since rebounded to only shy of $10.4 million.
Regardless of the token’s crash, Base didn’t delete its announcement tweet. As an alternative, it tried to resume enthusiasm for the disastrous launch. Founder Jesse Pollak made no apologies and carried on along with his podcast tour whereas retweeting blame-the-victim fashion admonitions about “teaching a valuable lesson” to crypto speculators.
Coinbase, in the meantime, has claimed that “Base did not launch a token.”
A spokesperson informed Cointelegraph, “This is not an official Base token, and Base did not sell this token. Base posted on Zora, which automatically tokenizes content.”
Base: No plans for a token
Since its launch in 2023, Base and its leaders have repeatedly sworn that the venture had no plans to launch a token.
Certainly, on November 30, 2024, Founder Jesse Pollak mentioned, “There are no plans for a Base network token.” Once more, on April 9 of this 12 months, Pollack reiterated that he has “no plans for a token.”
Coinbase highlighted the promise, saying, “Please note that we do not currently plan to issue a new network token.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong agreed, saying, “We’re not planning to make any token for Base.”
Nonetheless, that each one modified yesterday, prompting a whole lot of complaints from customers.
By the strictest of definitions, the proprietary token that it minted and broadcast from its largest official social media account isn’t a “network” token like a gas- or fee-paying token. It’s a memecoin.
