Coinbase’s Base is putting finance back at the center, with new plans for markets, stablecoins, and builder tools in 2026.
Base, the Layer-2 network behind Coinbase‘s on-chain push, is swinging back toward finance after spending the past year trying to turn the network into a more social, creator-friendly product.
The network, which has more than $4 billion in total value locked according to DefiLlama, said in a Tuesday blog post, March 31, that its 2026 focus is now on building “global markets,” “scaling payments and stablecoins” and “being the home for builders.”
From Coinbase Wallet to Base App
Base App, which used to be called Coinbase Wallet and was once pitched by the exchange as a broad “super app” with social features, didn’t win the kind of user response Base had hoped for. By January, Base creator Jesse Pollak said in an X post that the app felt “too close to web2” and that the team is now focused on making it “trading-first.”
As a result, Base is now leaning harder into prediction markets, tokenization, and 24/7 trading, according to the blog post. The company said:
“Prediction markets are letting people put skin in the game on what they believe. And AI agents are discovering these markets as their native economy, building, owning, and trading alongside us.”
Base Bets on Stablecoins
The post also shows Base wants a bigger role in stablecoins. The network said it handled more than $17 trillion in stablecoin volume last year and wants to make stablecoin payments “low-cost, instant, private, and available everywhere.”
The push also comes as analysts at Standard Chartered said the sharp jump in stablecoin velocity goes against their earlier forecasts. They added that this trend could mean less need for new token issuance, even as transaction volumes keep growing.
Even so, Base still trails bigger rivals. DefiLlama data shows Base is the sixth-largest blockchain with $4.7 billion in stablecoin market cap, behind TRON, BNB▼$572.06 Chain, Solana, and others.
For builders, Base is keeping the pitch simple. It says it wants to help both humans and AI agents build faster, raise money, and grow a “based builder community.”
