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 short rally of two hours on its shock announcement, the newly minted BASEISFOREVERYONE memecoin crashed 88% inside two minutes.
Then, at 4:30pm, somebody determined to tug the rug out from underneath consumers, and inside seven minutes, its price crashed 94%.
It has since rebounded to only shy of $10.4 million.
Regardless of the token’s crash, Base didn’t delete its announcement tweet. As a substitute, it tried to resume enthusiasm for the disastrous launch. Founder Jesse Pollak made no apologies and carried on together with his podcast tour whereas retweeting blame-the-victim model admonitions about “teaching a valuable lesson” to crypto speculators.
Coinbase, in the meantime, has claimed that “Base did not launch a token.”
A spokesperson instructed 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 mission had no plans to launch a token.
Certainly, on November 30, 2024, Founder Jesse Pollak mentioned, “There are no plans for a Base network token.” Once more, on April 9 of this yr, Pollack reiterated that he has “no plans for a token.”
Coinbase highlighted the promise, asserting, “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.”
Nevertheless, that every one modified yesterday, prompting a whole lot of complaints from customers.
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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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