This time, it’s Coinbase. More specifically, Coinbase’s aspiring web3 super app, Base App, and its short-lived attempt to turn itself into a social-first everything app built around creators, content, and creator coins. In a Feb. 9 post on X, Base App announced—not for the first time—that it’s refocusing on trading, a move that nudges the product closer to what Coinbase Wallet was before the rebrand. The Farcaster-style “Talk” feed is being shut down and, notably, the Creator Rewards program is set for closure on Feb. 15. Base even pointed out that it paid out more than $450,000 to roughly 17,000 creators over the past six months.
But that means the average payout comes out to less than $30 per creator. Jesse Pollak — Base’s creator and a tireless advocate of creator coins and Base — repeatedly went on X pledging support for creators, again and again. In an X post this week, Pollak attempted to frame the latest move as clarity rather than retreat. He admitted that the Base App “was always an imperfect Farcaster client” and needed a single primary focus.
That focus, he said, is now trading. With the Talk feed gone, he expects social users — himself included — to flow back to the Farcaster app. X user @thegreatola summed up the frustration felt by many: “Base is always pivoting to something new every two months. Identity crisis at its finest.” The Block co-founder Mike Dudas noted in a Tuesday X post that with such constant changes in priorities it’s “simply impossible for long term builders and long term, patient capital to build and invest predictably in an ecosystem where capital, attention and support is reallocated on very short term time horizons.”
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