Most Influential: Jesse Pollak

AI Summary3 min read

TL;DR

Jesse Pollak, creator of Coinbase's layer-2 network Base, has driven its explosive growth in 2025 through low-cost transactions and diverse applications. Base has become a major L2 with over $15B TVL, fueled by DeFi, social apps, and memecoins, while Pollak hints at a potential native token.

Key Takeaways

•Jesse Pollak launched Base in 2023 as Coinbase's first layer-2 network, making onchain activity cheaper and easier.
•Base grew significantly in 2025, surpassing $15B in TVL and becoming one of the largest L2s, driven by low transaction costs and diverse applications.
•Key ecosystem drivers include Aerodrome Finance (over $1B TVL) and Zora, which leverage Base's creator-economy trend.
•Pollak faced backlash over his $JESSE memecoin launch in November 2024 but has hinted at a potential native token for Base, creating user anticipation.
•Base's growth creates a feedback loop, positioning it as a hub for onchain culture, DeFi, social apps, and experimentation.

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 began at 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 and becoming one of the largest L2s by $10 billion (Arbitrum is the only layer-2 network larger than Base).

The rise of Base’s popularity is not only due to how low transaction costs are — well under a cent —, but also because of the growing DeFi applications available in its ecosystem, as well as social applications and memecoins that drew growth over the past year. (Pollak’s rising stardom was slightly dimmed when he faced heavy backlash over his $JESSE memecoin launch in November, after what many users claim that bots grabbed much of the supply and the token siphoned 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, which surged to more than $1 billion in TVL in 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 and riding 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 much anticipation among users who are already driving activity.

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