Bitcoin Exchange Coinbase CEO Answers Questions About the Launch of BASE Token!

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• Armstrong expressed being “very pleased” with how Base has progressed since its launch in August.
• Armstrong stated, “Now, we are working hard to integrate it with various applications,” mentioning that developers are “extremely excited” about dealing with layer-2.
• As part of Coinbase’s bold internal goal to make the average transaction “under one second and one cent,” Armstrong said that Base and other layer-2 solutions are involved.

Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong responded to questions about whether the exchange has any plans to launch a token for its layer-2 network Base.

Is Coinbase Considering Launching BASE Token?

According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the exchange does not have plans to create a token for the layer-2 network Base. Armstrong, during an exclusive interview with COINOTAG, stated, “We are not planning to make any token for Base.”

This statement seems to contradict the earlier statement by Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, who, in a statement to COINOTAG in September, said, “I think a token could be appropriate at some point in the future,” adding, “We’re not ruling that out entirely.”

A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed that there is no plan for Coinbase to launch a token for the Base network. Armstrong mentioned that they are “very pleased” with how Base has progressed since its launch in August. Describing Base as the third-largest layer-2 in terms of total value locked (TVL) within a few months of its launch, he said, “That’s really good,” and added that there were approximately one million wallets interacting with the chain at the time of launch.

Armstrong stated, “Now, we are working hard to integrate it with various applications,” mentioning that developers are “extremely excited” about dealing with layer-2. Layer-2 is a type of cryptocurrency network built on top of existing networks, like Ethereum. These scaling networks, called second layers, have the ability to handle transactions much faster and at a much lower fee than the base layer. Some of these networks have their own native tokens and compete for market share in the crypto space. Base quickly became a favorite among users.

One Second, One Cent

Armstrong said that the company’s goal of making the average transaction “under one second and one cent” is a bold internal goal, and Base and other layer-2 solutions are part of this. This would mean improvements needed in Base, but it also means making layer-2 “the default on our platform, not something where people occasionally bridge to layer-2 and do something,” he said.

Armstrong added, “This is not just with Base,” stating, “This is doing things like integrating Lightning Network on Bitcoin, integrating other layer-1s that are very fast like Solana.” He revealed that they set internal goals to “ramp that number up a lot” since around 7% of transactions on Coinbase use layer-2. He said this is part of a “multi-year effort.”

Comparing the transition to Layer-2 to the shift from dial-up to broadband on the internet, Armstrong said, “I think it’s incredibly important in terms of bringing new applications online.”

Armstrong expressed his “delight” in seeing other crypto exchanges progressing towards launching their own layer-2 networks while suggesting that the industry needs to converge around one or two layer-2 networks. In early November, it was reported that Kraken, a Coinbase competitor based in San Francisco, was considering launching its own layer-2 network, possibly in collaboration with Polygon. A week later, crypto exchange OKX announced X1, built on Polygon technology.

Armstrong told COINOTAG, “It probably would have been a mistake for every application to have its own L2, so I’m thinking a bit about whether there should be some consolidation around one or two L2s. I welcome others to figure this out, and generally, every app needs to get onto some kind of L2, probably.”