Over the last year, Base has gone from “just another new L2”
to one of the most active chains in the Ethereum ecosystem.

DeFi, NFTs, gaming, SocialFi, memecoins – all of that is already happening on Base.

But the question that really keeps coming back is:

“If Base launches its own token… how big could that be?”

Some traditional finance analysts have already floated estimates in the tens of billions of dollars in potential market value if a Base token ever exists.

Numbers like that don’t describe just “another airdrop”.
They describe an event that could end up being one of the largest value distributions in crypto history.

If Base ever launches a token, it won’t just be another farm.
It could be a turning point in how users and chains share upside.

To understand Base, you have to start with the parent – Coinbase.

• A US-based crypto exchange, listed on NASDAQ

• Over a hundred million verified users worldwide

• Billions of dollars in cash and crypto on its balance sheet

• One of the few crypto companies that live fully inside the public-markets, regulator-heavy world

Inside that world, Base is not just a fun experiment.

Coinbase has talked again and again about its mission:

“Bring the next billion people onchain.”

Base is one of the main tools to make that happen:

• It’s an Ethereum Layer 2 with very low fees

• Built on the OP Stack, so it fits into the broader Ethereum ecosystem

• Designed to be the “home base” for onchain apps that normal people can use without thinking about RPCs and gas settings

In other words:

Base = the chain Coinbase wants to use as a bridge
between its Web2 user base and a real onchain economy.

Put a few simple facts together:

• Behind Base is a public company with huge resources

• Coinbase has 100M+ KYC’d users

• It controls both a massive centralized platform and a growing L2

• And right now: Base has no native token

Now imagine a world where Coinbase decides to:

• Launch a Base token

• Use both onchain activity (on Base) and historical Coinbase usage as signals

• Distribute tokens to users who actually had skin in the game

Suddenly you don’t just have an airdrop for a niche group of DeFi power users.
You have a potential distribution to tens of millions of people, many of whom have never received a meaningful onchain airdrop before.

That’s why people get excited. Not just because of speculation, but because:

A Base token would be one of the first chances
for a truly “mass market” user base to become
economic stakeholders in a major L2.

For airdrop hunters, using Base today feels a bit like:

Not guaranteed yield –
but a lottery ticket whose prize could be historic if it ever happens.

It’s easy to focus only on “maybe there will be a token”.
But Base today already looks like a full onchain city:

• TVL in the billions

• Millions of transactions per day

• Thousands of deployed contracts and live apps

• A mix of DEXs, lending, perps, NFT marketplaces, games, creator tools, social apps, and memes

The unique part is distribution:

• If you build on Base, you can plug into Coinbase’s ecosystem much more naturally than on a random chain that has no CEX relationship

• Wallets, USDC, fiat on-ramps/off-ramps, and potential product integrations all line up behind the same logo

So for me, Base already feels less like “yet another L2”
and more like Coinbase’s base layer for the next phase of its business.

It’s not just a chain on a chart of TVL.
It’s a piece of long-term infrastructure for a listed company.

Every chain has a story.
Base’s story is tightly linked to one person: Brian Armstrong.

• Former engineer at Airbnb

• Left to build Coinbase back in 2012, when Bitcoin was still a joke to most of the world

• Took Coinbase through multiple bull/bear cycles, regulatory fights, and eventually a public listing

What I find interesting about Brian is that he doesn’t talk about crypto only through the lens of “Number Go Up”.

He keeps repeating the same bigger idea:

An open financial system where anyone, anywhere,
can participate without needing special permission.

When someone with that mindset builds an L2 called “Base”,
people naturally treat it differently from an anonymous “degen chain” that appears out of nowhere.

A simple way to think about it:

Some chains are like villages put together by a few devs.
Base is more like a new city where a public company helped design the streets.

With most L2s, the main pitch is:

• “Cheaper, faster transactions.”

With Base, the pitch is more subtle:

• “Let people use onchain apps
  without needing to realize they’re using a blockchain.”

Coinbase can:

• Onboard people with fiat → crypto

• Give them a wallet

• Route them to Base-native apps

• Hide most of the scary blockchain UX under the hood

If that works, we get a world where:

• Millions of “normal” users interact with onchain apps on Base

• …without ever thinking, “I’m doing something advanced with a Layer 2.”

In that scenario, if Base also has a token one day,
the number of potential token holders and users becomes enormous.

People won’t just be “farmers”.
They’ll be regular users of products who happen to live on Base.

From a retail point of view, it’s easy to lock onto just one question:

“How big will the airdrop be?”

But I think better questions are:

• Do I believe Base will exist and matter 5–10 years from now?

• Do I want to be more than just a temporary farmer here?

• If Base becomes the default chain for millions of everyday users,
  where do I want to stand inside that ecosystem?

Personally, I see it like this:

Base shouldn’t only be seen as “a big airdrop bet”.
It’s one of the main places where the next chapter
of the onchain economy is being written.

If a Base token happens and it’s huge – great.
But even before that, understanding:

• how Base fits into Coinbase’s strategy,

• what Brian is trying to build,

• and how Base onboards people from Web2 to Web3

…is already a form of edge for anyone who wants to survive more than one cycle.

Base is not just a place to chase points.
It’s a city being built in real time.
The earlier you understand the layout, the better your chances of finding your spot.