Jesse Pollak, best known as the creator behind American crypto exchange Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base, has been seen as the person largely responsible for the network’s growth in popularity this year.
Pollak, who joined Coinbase in 2017, launched Base in 2023. Designed to make onchain activity cheaper and easier, and to support a new wave of decentralized applications, Base represented the first time a major crypto exchange had launched its own layer-2 network.
This year, Base saw significant growth: crossing $15 billion in total value locked (TVL) in January, becoming one of the largest L2s at $10 billion (Arbitrum is the only layer-2 network larger than Base).
The rise in Base’s popularity is not only due to how low transaction costs are – well under a cent – but also due to the growing DeFi applications available in its ecosystem, as well as social applications and memecoins that have seen growth over the last year. (Pollak’s rising stardom was somewhat dampened when he faced heavy backlash over his $JESSE memecoin launch in November, after what many users claim were bots taking away much of the supply and the token drawing liquidity from other Base projects.)
In 2025, several projects on Coinbase’s Base network have broken out as major ecosystem drivers, with projects like decentralized exchange Aerodrome Finance rising to more than $1 billion in TVL by January 2025 and a core liquidity hub for the chain. Zora, a decentralized social network, also emerged as a standout, launching its token in April, riding on Base’s growing onchain creator-economy trend. More broadly, Base itself has seen explosive growth across DeFi, social and meme-driven applications, creating a feedback loop that amplifies demand for native protocols as the network positions itself as a home for this type of onchain culture and experimentation.
As for what the chain has next in store: Pollak hinted that there could be a native token coming to Base, creating great anticipation among users who are already running activity.
Read more: Base Explores Native Token Issuance, Says Creator Jesse Pollak
