three learnings from me in 2025: 1. sometimes i can be too far in the future. coming into the year, I wanted to take a shot to bring more people onchain. and I saw the creator economy as a 100x opportunity to do exactly that. but in leaning all the way into creators with the base app, i jumped too far ahead. by overfocusing on this emerging segment, i think we overshadowed the core of builders and traders. i continue to believe deeply in bringing the creator economy onchain and the importance of non-financial use cases ... but i think the reality is that it’s going to take years to bring everyone onchain and we need to build there incrementally. and that means making the base app work really well for traders and builders first, and earning the right to expand the aperture. in parallel, the ecosystem will continue to cook on creators, social, and other non-financial use cases and we'll drive distribution to them. 2. trading is the chain’s biggest area for growth. base has established itself as the best place for builders — but one of the biggest opportunities is that our liquidity and trading economy is still maturing. as a builder platform, issuing new assets and enabling trading of them are the thing with the most product market fit and it's clear there's so much more growth we can drive there. i think some of this is downstream of the fact that i've never been a professional trader, so i've had less natural empathy for both traders themselves and what makes a great trading platform. but i'm learning fast and we're already seeing the positive results of this focus. we are going to make base the most trusted, liquid, powerful trading economy in the world. tons more upside ahead. 3. growing the decentralized bench of base leaders and the tools they have to lift up the ecosystem is absolutely critical. base started inside coinbase and we've been gradually decentralizing since day 1. in 2025, we made big strides like achieving stage 1 and decentralizing our security council, but we have a ton more work to do. and one of the biggest opportunities is continuing to decentralize culturally. the more voices and capital allocators we have that are rowing in the same direction — growing the base economy — the faster and better we will all grow together. this means giving people a platform (with distribution + capital) and the tools to measure and scale their impact. success means that what the base core team does matters less and what empowered individuals and teams do matters more. this is a major priority for me personally — and if you're reading this, I need your help making it happen. if raise your hand, lift up other builders, and deploy capital, i will do everything i can to help you win. we'll be sharing more on the base mission, vision, and strategy next week and i thought this would be a helpful backdrop. one of my favorite values of coinbase’s has always been continuous learning. and 2025 was a year filled with big learnings for me — and i’m fired up to apply them as we grow base in 2026 and beyond. open to more feedback and ideas. day one.
Jesse Pollak
@jesse.base.ethbase builder #001 | DM jessexbt to get started building
Appearances
Often on the show with
Casts Featured on GM Farcaster
PSA: we’re making the @baseapp.base.eth feed tradable assets only — which means turning off the farcaster-powered “Talk” feed. here's why: the app needs to have one primary focus, and that thing is trading. when you open @baseapp.base.eth, you should know exactly what you're getting, and we’re focused on making it the best place to find and trade every asset. to reflect a little: I was the biggest advocate for bringing @farcaster content into the base app and continue to believe in a multi-client world. but as we’ve rolled the app out, we’ve realized we need to do less, better. and by focusing on tradable assets, that’s exactly what we can do. and candidly, I think the truth is that the base app was always an imperfect farcaster client. With this change, I expect those users to flow back to the farcaster app (myself included) and inject more energy into the economy there, with a best in class interface. @base.base.eth will continue to support farcaster and @neynar and the incredible ecosystem of builders. so much of who base is comes from farcaster and I only expect that to grow.
I love Farcaster and will be forever grateful to @dwr and @v for building it. So much of what makes @base.base.eth what it is comes from here and I expect that to continue. The world is deeply better because Farcaster exists.
Tl;dr: We’re focusing the Base app to be trading-first to drive demand and distribution for a full range of assets and to be the best app for whatever you do in the onchain economy.
I just ran into this guy on the street and he told me grok has money?
woke up in the middle of the night to see that the team successfully sent basedmas gifts to tens of thousands of people all around the world no better feeling than giving people a gift on the holidays. proud of our team for sprinting to make it happen. just getting started.
2025 was the year of building @baseapp.base.eth
Baselana
we will make the @baseapp.base.eth the best app
$jesse is live CA: 0x50F88fe97f72CD3E75b9Eb4f747F59BcEBA80d59
I'm launching jessexbt today why? I get 100+ of DMs a day and I try to answer, but I can never go as deep as I want so I spent 6mo building jessexbt with @a0xbot to give a smart, helpful, based jesse to every builder it's early — and I want your feedback 👇
context: I've taken a new role as Cashier at Daytrip Counter
EVERY BASE MEMECOIN IS NOW ON COINBASE
top of mind for me coming back from recharge ignore the noise, stay focused, keep building
trending creators and posts now live in @baseapp.base.eth
i'm excited about @coinbase.farcaster.eth’s DEX launch because it puts @base.base.eth builders on a level playing field base is for everyone, but because of the antiquated listings process, that didn't always feel true now it is: and it's up to builders to earn the attention with hard work. onwards!
want to hold the cube? try this awesome miniapp from @stephancill https://stylize.steer.fun/generations/7f9e43be-55f2-4e4c-8156-59a8b75d77c7
best way to onboard to @base.base.eth app I've found: 1. get them setup 2. have them coin something cool/fun/funny/based 3. buy their first post instantly earns them some ETH, gives them the option to sell (up to the amount you bought), and enables them to send their creativity to others all possible in <2m
if I send you $5 on @base.base.eth app when you join, my ask would be that you pay it forward. how? find coined posts you like (they have a value next to the like reaction) and buy as much or as little as you like. it's going to take all of us to get this flywheel spinning fast.
reminder: the @base.base.eth app is still very much in beta. expect rough edges and bugs. your patience and feedback at this early stage is very much appreciated. we will make this the best app, together.
the plan for @base.farcaster.eth: 1. enable builders and creators to originate millions of *high quality* coins that have real onchain flywheels and value flows 2. make it simple for traders and investors to access them and win over the long term and the flywheel is just starting to spin
ok today went better than I expected
just saw the president, he seemed distracted
people assume this week was some coordinated marketing campaign the truth is the effort to coin things from @base.base.eth went 0 to 1 in <1 day with @drewcoffman doing the creative and the only goal being use onchain tools everything else has just happened. coins are viral I guess.
to be explicit: the north star for @base.base.eth is to grow the number of builders and creators onchain creators and builders then generate the supply of use cases, content, etc that will onboard everyone else everything we do is in this pursuit
can't long post on here - so here's a screenshot tl;dr 1. i believe in coining 2. i'm hopeful we'll see more experimentation 3. i'm sorry for my tweet this morning will keep experimenting, making mistakes, taking the L (learnings) and figuring out how to do better. keep building, stay based
reminder: the @base.base.eth core team is hiring. key roles: - builder roles around the world - eng across fullstack, protocol, and smart contracts - design on both app and builder tools - finance, product, and data science too! this is the best team i've ever worked with by far. apply at base.org/jobs
it's never as good as it seems, it's never as bad as it seems good sunday to build something — or go outside, touch grass, and lock in for the week ahead
just got $300 for farcaster rewards reply with something quick and cool you'd do with $50 to bring someone new onchain or grow the ecosystem will send out $50 to best ideas until I run out
I took some time to write up my thoughts on the FUD around Base and our ETH earnings. TL;DR purity tests like this are currently a scourge on Ethereum and we need to fix the culture to refocus on building and delivering value to real people. https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1889032217671946274
hello from coinbase wallet
the future of @baseapp.base.eth: 1. help apps, coins, and content go viral 2. give everyone a reason to be onchain who's ready to build it with us?
think this sucks and you can do better? record yourself onboarding 5 people on the street (use onchaingift.com) and share it here, farcaster, TikTok, and instagram I'll give $100 in USDC to the 10 videos that go the most viral
excuse me ma'am, do you have a minute to get onchain?
on $TRUMP: to everyone: a huge win for crypto - the overton window is shifted and many new people coming onchain. to solana: reaffirms your awesome work, proud to build alongside you. to based builders: THIS IS THE BEGINNING. time to buckle down, keep building, stay based.
i made a promise to the @basegod community when we were just getting started, and with $10B+ TVL now onchain on @base.base.eth, it's time to deliver 🧑🦲 tune in to watch it live, tomorrow (1/8) at 1PM PT
Jesse Pollak's End of Year AMA
2024 was big — proud to be building with all of you
one million ETH bridged to @base.base.eth — and it's still day one
how we work together to help builders go viral in 2025
it's thanksgiving week, so I want to try something new — would love everyone to join in. what's one thing or person in the @base.base.eth ecosystem that you are grateful for you? rules: can't be me, share a quick why, tag in whoever it is, stay based.
PSA: after 21d around the world, I'm back at my desk my top priorities through EOY are: 1. hire incredible leaders (apply below) 2. help based builders go viral 3. help based content creators go viral 4. share 2025 mission, vision, strategy if you want to help, get in touch.
legendary time last night in nairobi so grateful for all the based builders from across the continent who showed up — so much more to learn, build, and do together