Unchained Ep. 904: Base Will Likely Have a Token: Why Now, Who Wins, and How Big It Gets

Host: Laura Shin
Guests: Ryan Yee (ex-Coinbase Ventures, ex-CoinFund) and ICO Beast (Proof of Play)
Date: September 16, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Laura Shin dives deep into the breaking news from the recent Basecamp event: Base (the Coinbase-backed L2) is officially exploring a token launch, marking a significant shift for the company and its relationship to the broader crypto ecosystem. Laura is joined by industry insiders Ryan Yee and ICO Beast to analyze why now is the moment, how Base could structure its token, regulatory and competitive implications, and what this means for the future of onchain competition (especially between Base, Solana, and Ethereum).

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Base Token Announcement: Shock vs. Expectation

• Base’s evolution: For a long time, Base operated without a native token, attracting significant user and builder growth on fundamentals alone. The announcement to move toward a token is both logical and surprising, given Coinbase’s public, regulated status.
• Industry surprise: “I think it's a very exciting development…It feels like a natural evolution, but it’s still a pretty shocking thing to hear, especially from a company like Coinbase who’s centralized and public.” – Ryan Yee [01:56]
• Regulatory context: Coinbase’s status as the first crypto company in the S&P 500 makes any token issuance highly scrutinized and complex.

2. Strategic Reasons for Announcing (Not Launching)

• Controlling the narrative: By announcing “we are exploring” rather than launching outright, Coinbase can manage hype and speculation, and also respond to inevitable leaks.
• Regulatory uncertainty: Timing may depend on Congressional clarity regarding token classification (e.g., the Clarity Act).
• Locking in mindshare: Early announcement serves to attract new builders and users, and drives hype for the upcoming Base app. “By announcing this, it will definitely renew more interest in Base, especially when mindshare across blockchains is…it’s a very hard thing to capture.” – Ryan Yee [04:04]

3. Commitment to Ethereum

• Sticking with ETH: Base leadership stressed continued alignment with Ethereum, citing benefits of being part of “a connected global economy” and Ethereum’s increasing institutional status.
• “Base has been built on EVM…with us now this thing becomes bigger collectively.” – Ryan Yee [07:23]
• Competition note: Laura referenced Tarun Chitra’s wry observation on the “Chopping Block” pod: “Oh, it’s BNB for white people.” [07:04]

4. Token Allocation: Predictions and Preferences

• Expected split: Ryan predicts token ownership will break down as:
  • 20–40% retained by Coinbase (could encompass team and investor allocations)
  • ~20% to an independent treasury (managed by the Base team, Coinbase, and select community participants)
  • The remainder to the community via airdrops/public sale/distribution [08:32]
• Spin-out speculation: The Base team could eventually spin out as a semi-independent entity, similar to Uniswap Labs’ structure, further supporting decentralization in both optics and governance.
• Legal structuring: Laura and Ryan discuss possible U.S.-compliant structures if relevant legislation passes, reducing or eliminating the need for offshore entities, depending on the progress of the Clarity Act. [14:34]

5. Airdrops, Points Campaigns, and ICO Models

• Rumors and leaks: Reports suggest Base will run a points farming campaign (including “Base Blue”) in Q4 2025, echoing recent crypto trends.
• Predicted launch approach: Likely a hybrid:
  • Builder allocations based on gas/transaction contributions
  • Points campaign via the TBA Base app, targeting user engagement and growth
  • Possibly a public ICO sale, leveraging Coinbase’s direct reach, akin to Robinhood’s “early IPO” feature [19:51]
• Civil resistance: ICO Beast and Ryan note the rising challenge of Sybil (multi-wallet farming) and stress the need for robust filtering to prevent exploitation. “The most successful airdrop…is going to be one that aggressively Sybil filters…” – ICO Beast [26:10]

6. Token Utility: Rewards, Governance, and More

• Utility focus: They expect Base token to mirror ETH’s properties:
  • Fee burning (sequencer revenue)
  • Potential as main DeFi liquidity asset on Base
  • Rewards (e.g., bonus interest rates, gas subsidies for certain assets like USDC)
• Governance potential: Likely to start limited, expanding only over time, as meaningful product and engineering decisions are unlikely to be community-controlled at first. “[Base is] extremely integral to how Coinbase is thinking about its onchain future. I would never imagine they want to open up extremely important product or engineering decisions to the community…” – Ryan Yee [30:35]
• Regulatory ceiling: Clarity Act may cap any entity’s governance power at 20%, pushing true decentralization by forcing Coinbase to delegate or diversify voting power. [31:45]

7. Base’s Place in the Onchain Competitive Landscape

• Integration with Solana: Base announced testnet-level Solana integration, seen as strategic acknowledgment of Solana’s strength, especially among consumer-facing apps and Gen Z users. [37:24]
• “My view of that is it's just Base admitting that Solana is its biggest competition.” – Ryan Yee [39:11]
• Liqudity and consumer cultures:
  • Solana excels at user/consumer culture (e.g., memes, Gen Z, Normie onboarding)
  • Base (via Coinbase) is dominant in DeFi and institutional liquidity, though less so in user engagement [41:15]
• Onchain “arms race”:
  • Other players: Robinhood, Stripe, HyperLiquid, Binance, Telegram, Tether, etc.
  • Strategies differ: Solana focuses on quantity/diversity of tokens; Base leverages institutional rails/liquidity; HyperLiquid is gaining ground in derivatives.
  • “Crypto’s financial technology and the core product of crypto's tokens at the end of the day. And so I think as long as you’re in the business of: We have the most tokens, we have the most volume and flows…that’s how you win.” – Ryan Yee [47:15]
  • ICO Beast: “We’re not going to see Solana companies or Ethereum companies or even crypto companies in the next three years or so. It’s just going to be companies, and they’re going to be using crypto rails for pieces that make sense…and not for pieces that don’t.” [47:13]

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• On Base’s potential token value:
  “Let’s say base token came out today, like, what would it trade at? I would probably conservatively think that it could probably come out at like 20 billion. I think it could probably run to like 40 or 50.” – Ryan Yee [00:00, also repeated at 31:45]
• On Coinbase’s cautious public strategy:
  “They gave themselves a lot of wiggle room by saying that we are exploring the idea of a token…If they felt at some point they could even pivot away from it and never do it, because they’re exploring.” – ICO Beast [21:54]
• On Spinout and Structuring Options:
  “So I would imagine that this probably has something that looks very similar [to other crypto startups] where...the actual token...might be through some offshore entity, but that offshore entity would probably be issuing tokens of which an allocation would be going to Coinbase.” – Ryan Yee [12:30]
• On Balancing Allocation:
  “I would hope that [the airdrop] would be largely to users. But also we know if you give too many tokens out to users, then your chart looks really bad because everybody wants to sell it.” – ICO Beast [23:40]
• On DeFi vs Consumer Culture:
  “Solana probably has a better consumer aspect and user aspect right now…any crypto app, it’s probably on Solana…If you compare that to Base, it’s definitely more DeFi and liquidity centric.” – Ryan Yee [39:11]
• On the overall “onchain race”:
  “This is ultimately the two vectors…I would consider as the most important things going forward...[token quantity and liquidity].” – Ryan Yee [47:15]

Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] Opening speculation on Base token valuation
• [01:56] Ryan’s initial reaction to the news
• [04:04] Why announce now, not just launch?
• [07:04] Commitment to Ethereum & “BNB for white people”
• [08:32] Deep dive on allocations (Coinbase, Treasury, Community)
• [14:34] Clarity Act and timing of launch
• [19:51] Launch strategies: airdrop, points campaign, public sale
• [26:10] Sybil resistance and challenges
• [30:35] Utility and (eventual) governance role
• [31:45] Regulatory constraints on governance power
• [39:11] Assessment of Base vs. Solana competitiveness
• [47:13] The future: “not crypto companies, just companies”

Conclusion

This episode is a comprehensive primer on the rapidly evolving onchain landscape as Base (and Coinbase) embrace active competition among L2s, introducing their own token. The guests lay out the complex interplay between regulatory strategy, product structure, ecosystem incentives, and the macro “arms race” for mindshare and liquidity in web3’s next era.

For further insights: Listen to the full episode (~49 min) or follow the guests and Laura Shin on social for ongoing updates.