First Coin

Base co-founder denies manipulating prices and says the team will not favor any asset

Base is a new technology on Ethereum. It is built to help people use apps and assets more easily and with lower costs. Recently, people online asked questions about how Base might influence prices or pick favorites. In response, Jesse Pollak, who helped start Base, spoke clearly. He said the Base team will not secretly move price charts or push one asset up while hurting others. He also said the team will not secretly coordinate or send money to sway prices for a specific outcome. He warned that doing so would harm other assets, would not be sustainable, would go against the team’s values of free and open markets, and could be illegal.

Pollak also spoke in a tweet. He explained that the Base team, which is connected to Coinbase as part of their incubation work, will instead try to make high‑quality assets and apps easier to find and use. In his view, that means working to spread awareness and give more people access to good projects on Base. He admitted there is room for improvement in these efforts and that the team plans to bring in more money and attention to the ecosystem. He also made a strong statement in his tweet: “But base – and every market – deserves to be free, open, and fair, and it’s my job to ensure that remains the case.”

The comments came after a discussion on X (formerly known as Twitter). Some users asked why Base was not backing projects that could grow to very large market values. One user suggested that such issues aren’t unique to Base. They see this kind of behavior as part of a broader market problem, where speculative meme coins and hype drive prices in the short term.

Base’s position on fees and market activity

Base has become a major player in Ethereum’s Layer 2 space. Layer 2s are networks built on top of Ethereum to help it run faster and cheaper. They do this by taking some work off the main Ethereum chain. This can make transactions quicker and less expensive for users and developers. In recent weeks, Base led the way in Layer 2 fees on Ethereum. On January 14, Base brought in about $147,000 in daily revenue from Layer 2 activity. That day, Base accounted for roughly 70% of all Layer 2 fee revenue on Ethereum. This means most people paying fees for Layer 2 on Ethereum that day used Base.

This strong position made Base stand out compared to other Layer 2 networks. For example, Arbitrum brought in about $39,000, and StarkNet reported around $9,000 in the same period. Other Layer 2 projects such as Linea, Optimism, Unichain, Ink, zkSync, and Scroll had a harder time generating meaningful fees. Many of them did not reach $5,000 in that same period. These numbers show that Base was attracting a lot of attention from users and developers who want to use Layer 2 features on Ethereum.

All of this matters because fees are one practical way to measure how much people are using a network. A high fee revenue means more people are using that Layer 2 to run apps or make transactions. It can also attract more developers, who build the apps people use on Base. Still, money and attention can shift quickly in this space, so the Base team says they plan to keep working on growth strategies that align with fair and open markets.

Earlier in the month, the X product lead Nikita Bier shared a screenshot of X’s Smart Cashtags feature. This image showed a hypothetical Base token with a price of $130 and a very large market cap of about $373 billion. The post was only a fictional scenario, but it sparked fresh speculation across the industry. People talked about what such a token would mean for Base and how it could influence perceptions of the network’s value. Pollak’s defense against price manipulation and his emphasis on fair markets are connected to these kinds of conversations.

Overall, the story behind Base’s fee leadership and Pollak’s statements shows two ideas at once. First, Base is trying to grow its ecosystem—more users, more developers, and more visible projects. Second, the team wants to keep that growth fair. They want to avoid any actions that could manipulate prices or create an uneven playing field. They want Base and all markets to stay free, open, and fair for everyone.

These are big questions in a field with many different players. Ethereum remains the main chain for developers and users who want to run smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). Layer 2 networks like Base help Ethereum handle more activity with lower costs. The balance between fast growth and fair play is something many people watch closely, especially when money and attention are at stake.

For readers who are new to this area, here are a few helpful ideas. Layer 2 networks are designed to improve Ethereum. Think of Ethereum as a busy highway. Layer 2 networks build smaller roads on the sides to let some traffic move faster and cheaper. Projects like Arbitrum, StarkNet, and Optimism are all different paths on this same idea. Arbitrum, StarkNet, and Optimism are examples of Layer 2 systems with their own designs and tools. You can learn more about these specific projects on their official pages or in general knowledge sources such as Wikipedia. For instance, Arbitrum is described as a family of Layer 2 scaling solutions that use a technology called optimistic rollups to speed up transactions and lower costs. StarkNet uses zero‑knowledge proofs to improve scalability and privacy, and Optimism also uses optimistic rollups to achieve higher throughput. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrum, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarkNet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_(blockchain))

When people talk about Market manipulation, they are referring to actions meant to influence prices or market behavior through unfair means. This is often illegal in many places. Pollak’s comments about not manipulating prices are a pledge to avoid such activities. You can read a simple explanation of market manipulation here: Market manipulation.

Understanding Ethereum helps as well. Ethereum is a large, open, and decentralized network that supports many smart contracts and applications without a central owner. It has its own digital money called Ether (ETH). Layer 2 networks like Base work on top of Ethereum to help more people use Ethereum’s technology at lower costs. You can read more about Ethereum here: Ethereum.

Glossary for quick understanding

In summary, Jesse Pollak and the Base team say they do not intend to manipulate prices or favor certain assets. Their goal is to grow Base by helping more high‑quality projects reach more people, while keeping markets free, open, and fair. The exact future of Base will depend on how users, developers, and investors respond, and how the broader Layer 2 landscape evolves as more people try new ways to use Ethereum.

This summary is based on coverage about Base from CryptoPotato.