Will $Jesse Save Base

In a move that instantly energized the Base ecosystem, co-founder Jesse Pollak announced on November 19th that he would launch a personal creator token, $Jesse, at 9 AM PST on November 20th, through the Base App.

The announcement immediately sparked intense discussion across Base community channels, with reactions ranging from enthusiasm to skepticism.

The $Jesse token will be issued through the jesse.base.eth account with a fair launch—no presale, no team allocation, and no privileged access to contract addresses.

Market anticipation has been substantial. Within hours of the announcement, Twitter discussions about $Jesse surged. Traders shared strategies for pre-watching and sniping (even onchain tools like @o1_exchange).

People drew comparisons to other successful Base ecosystem projects like $Clanker, $BRETT, or $TOSHI. Notably, $Zora's price jumped 25% on November 20th following the announcement, potentially indicating the market's pricing in of the launch's impact on the broader Base ecosystem.

The Based Dillema

On paper, Base's metrics are solid. As of November, the network boasts approximately $4.34 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), $1.34 billion in 24-hour DEX trading volume, $4.74 billion in stablecoin market cap, and roughly 17.9 million daily transactions. These figures firmly position Base in the top tier of Ethereum L2 solutions. Major protocols including Aerodrome, Morpho, Aave, and Uniswap have established significant presence on the network. By technical standards, Base functions as a well-optimized chain.

However, Coinbase-incubated Base inherits its parent company's compliance-focused genes and cautious corporate culture. This heritage creates tension when embracing memecoin culture—which, despite its chaotic nature, has proven to be one of the most effective indicators of genuine user engagement. Solana's pump.fun generates tens of thousands of daily transactions representing real wallet activity and user engagement—precisely the kind of vitality Base needs.

Base has previously attempted to cultivate memecoins, including $DEGEN (January 2024), $BRETT and $DOGINME (February 2024), and $TOSHI (August 2024). Their common characteristic was being community-driven without strong narrative anchoring or ecosystem integration. They emerged more as fleeting phenomena rather than organic ecosystem components.

Jesse Pollak has previously expressed that Base needs a native token. $Jesse partially fills this void—while not an official token, its founder-led initiative carries a semi-official ambiguity that reflects Base's current position: desiring memecoin energy while maintaining some degree of control.

The Based Product

The Base App itself suffers from fundamental design problems that may undermine even the most strategic token initiatives. The homepage presents a chaotic user experience, cramming disparate elements like watchlists, advertisements, and NFTs into a single interface without clear navigation or purpose hierarchy. This lack of focused design suggests an identity crisis at the product level that mirrors Base's broader ecosystem challenges.

The Base App still functions primarily as a wallet and financial payment product—two categories that have seen intense competition and development for years. The high switching costs for users in these mature verticals create significant barriers to adoption.

The seamless, frictionless experience promised by crypto's next generation is better executed by competitors like Moonshot and Polymarket, which have created more intuitive interfaces for non-technical users. Base's approach feels derivative rather than revolutionary, missing opportunities to redefine how average users engage with digital assets.

Why This Launch May Be Different

Unlike previous Base memecoins, $Jesse deeply integrates with Zora and Doppler, forming a closed ecosystem loop. Zora, as Base's NFT and creator economy infrastructure, brings established traffic and users. This integration means $Jesse isn't an isolated token but an ecosystem-level experiment. The creator coin model itself offers a more sustainable narrative than pure memes—Jesse's content quality directly impacts $Jesse's value, creating a long-term alignment mechanism.

$Jesse's most significant differentiator is Jesse Pollak's direct involvement as Base's leader and Coinbase executive, signaling this isn't a peripheral experiment but a strategic test of Base's future direction with built-in regulatory protection. While Coinbase and Base have consistently prioritized compliance—often at the expense of embracing crypto's most vibrant cultural elements—this launch may determine whether Base can inject Solana-like energy while remaining within regulatory boundaries. The stakes increased when Coinbase revealed that all tokens created within the Base App would automatically list on Coinbase and OKX exchanges, providing $Jesse with immediate liquidity while establishing a precedent for future creator tokens. If successful, this approach could help Base carve out a unique position in the L2 landscape as both wild and compliant, while creating a structural foundation for a creator-driven token ecosystem with centralized exchange support.

Will $Jesse Save Base

Base doesn't lack infrastructure. With $4.34 billion TVL and $4.74 billion stablecoin market cap, these figures can support a healthy DeFi ecosystem. Base also possesses technical advantages, having increased gas limits to 150Mgas/second on November 12th to enhance throughput. What Base lacks is a compelling narrative that consistently attracts users and devs.

Memecoins aren't the end goal but a means to demonstrate who's actually using Base. Solana's success wasn't driven by $BONK or $WIF directly, but these tokens proved Solana had an active, risk-taking user base. Base needs similar validation.

Ultimately, the market will provide answers. If $Jesse reaches a market cap of tens of millions within days, if Base's daily transactions reach new highs in coming weeks, and if more creators begin launching their tokens, the experiment will have succeeded. But if $Jesse quickly cools after launch, becoming another forgotten memecoin, Base will need to continue its search for identity and purpose in the competitive L2 landscape. More importantly, Base must address its product fundamentals alongside token innovation if it hopes to compete effectively in the increasingly sophisticated crypto ecosystem.

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