Base App Shifts to Trading-First Strategy, Maintains Mini Apps and Creator Coins

Base, the self-custodial wallet and on-chain app ecosystem developed by Coinbase, is undergoing a strategic pivot toward a trading-first approach.

Since its launch in July 2025, the Base app has attracted hundreds of thousands of users engaging in activities ranging from trading and saving to building and spending on-chain.

Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base, announced the shift, detailing how the app will now prioritize driving demand and distribution for all types of tradable assets.

The move reflects feedback from users who indicated that the initial version of the app placed too much emphasis on social features, leaving the full breadth of on-chain assets underserved.

Pollak noted that three key themes emerged from user feedback:

• The app’s social-first focus felt overly reminiscent of Web2 platforms
• There is a strong demand for more high-quality tradable assets, and
• The feed should surface a comprehensive view of on-chain activity, including apps, stocks, predictions, and social tokens.

To address these needs, Base will now build trading as its primary feature. This shift aims to catalyze capital flow across growing asset classes, including protocols, applications, stocks, predictions, memes, and creator coins.

Pollak emphasized that a finance-first user experience (UX) will now form the foundation of the app, with social layers such as copy-trading, feed-trading, and leaderboards integrated on top.

The goal is to enhance user engagement, retention, and distribution across the Base ecosystem.

Despite the pivot, Mini Apps remain a central component of the platform. Pollak reassured developers and users that these tools for onboarding creators and facilitating consumer experiences will continue to be supported.

“…Mini Apps continue to be a core part of this vision – we are working on discoverability, and also much better tooling for tracking performance + leaderboards + impact (e.g., how many people have you onboarded). The goal with this shift is to drive more distribution, not less,” he noted.

Improvements to discoverability, performance tracking, and impact measurement, including leaderboards that show user onboarding and asset engagement, are in development.

This ensures that Mini Apps continue to drive visibility and distribution for apps and creators.

Creator coins, another hallmark of the Base economy, will also remain integral. Pollak specifically confirmed that his own $ Jesse token and other creator assets will continue to be supported. This reinforces Base’s commitment to a diverse and inclusive on-chain economy.

Builders, developers, and traders can expect all features to remain broadly accessible globally while adhering to local regulatory requirements. This includes jurisdictions such as the UK, which imposes stricter limitations.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong added that the Base App will expand its feed to include a wider range of assets and applications, offering a multi-chain experience while keeping Base as the primary hub.

This holistic approach is designed to facilitate discovery, demand generation, and capital allocation across the on-chain ecosystem.

By layering social functionality on a finance-first platform, Base aims to offer a comprehensive environment for trading, building, and engaging with on-chain assets.

However, even in the face of this paradigm change, Coinbase and, therefore, Base still have a long way to go to woo users, especially because of the cited execution and safety lag.

Developers have criticized Base for favoring insiders, meme coins, and social experiments over real utility.

Nevertheless, one cannot overlook that pivoting toward a trading-first vision is a step in the right direction, following retail’s push for integrated finance tools, rather than fragmented apps or on-chain social distractions.