For all the innovation in crypto, one thing remains strikingly uniform: almost every stablecoin is tied to the U.S. dollar.
Jesse Pollak, the architect of Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network, believes that’s a problem — and an opportunity.
At Token2049 in Singapore, Pollak argued that the global economy runs on many currencies, yet crypto overwhelmingly favors the greenback. Dollars account for about 60% of global reserves, he noted, but that leaves dozens of significant currencies — from the euro to the naira — absent from blockchain finance. “The industry is still 99% dollarized,” he said.
Local Value, Local Utility
Pollak sees untapped potential in giving people access to tokens denominated in their own money. He explained that if stablecoins mirrored local currencies, people could borrow, lend, and make payments without first converting into dollars. That shift, he suggested, could accelerate mainstream crypto adoption far beyond the United States.
Base is already experimenting with this approach. In September alone, the network processed 81 billion stablecoin transactions worth $1.5 trillion. More importantly, it now supports a dozen non-USD stablecoins, including tokens linked to the Turkish lira, Indonesian rupiah, New Zealand dollar, and Brazilian real. On Thursday, Base added two more: one tied to the Singapore dollar and another to the Australian dollar.
Still, the numbers show just how entrenched the dollar is in crypto. According to The Block’s data dashboard, USD-backed stablecoins in circulation hit 284.4 billion this week, up from 272.3 billion a month ago. The gap between dollar supply and everything else remains vast.
Beyond Stablecoins: The Base Super App
Stablecoins aren’t the only frontier for Base. The team is also building an all-in-one consumer platform called the Base App, which rebrands Coinbase Wallet into something closer to a Web3 super app.
Currently in beta with 1.2 million people on its waitlist, the app blends payments, trading, social interaction, and mini-apps. Its biggest focus, however, is on the creator economy. Pollak criticized Web2 platforms for capturing nearly all the value creators generate. “Creators see less than 5%,” he said. In contrast, he envisions onchain social networks giving creators control of 95% of the value their work produces.
Pollak said the Base App will open more broadly “in the coming months.” Paired with the network’s push to diversify stablecoins, Base is positioning itself not just as infrastructure for fast transactions but as a testing ground for how crypto could reshape both money and online culture.
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Source: https://coindoo.com/the-next-big-stablecoin-boom-wont-be-in-dollars-says-base/