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 brief rally of two hours on its surprise announcement, the newly minted BASEISFOREVERYONE memecoin crashed 88% within two minutes.
Then, at 4:30pm, someone decided to pull the rug out from under buyers, and within seven minutes, its price crashed 94%.
It has since rebounded to just shy of $10.4 million.
Despite the token’s crash, Base didn’t delete its announcement tweet. Instead, it tried to renew enthusiasm for the disastrous launch. Founder Jesse Pollak made no apologies and carried on with his podcast tour while retweeting blame-the-victim style admonitions about “teaching a valuable lesson” to crypto speculators.
Coinbase, meanwhile, has claimed that “Base did not launch a token.”
A spokesperson told 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 project had no plans to launch a token.
Indeed, on November 30, 2024, Founder Jesse Pollak said, “There are no plans for a Base network token.” Again, on April 9 of this year, Pollack reiterated that he has “no plans for a token.”
Coinbase highlighted the promise, announcing, “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.”
However, that all changed yesterday, prompting hundreds of complaints from users.
Read more: ‘Secret’ Coinbase, Binance listing fees spark heated debate
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.
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Source: https://protos.com/coinbase-claims-the-token-base-just-launched-isnt-actually-a-token-at-all/