Major Coinbase News, But Not About Blue Dot NFTs
After teasing a major announcement throughout the day yesterday, Coinbase debuted Base, a "new Ethereum L2, incubated by Coinbase and built on the open-source OP stack" this morning.
❗Why It Matters
Coinbase hopes to attract millions of new crypto users in the coming years by providing a "secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere to build decentralized apps or 'dapps' onchain," according to Coinbase's VP of Engineering, Will Robinson.
🔎 The Details
- Coinbase makes it very clear that there are "no plans to issue a new token," and this note even appears in the description of Base's new Twitter account as regulatory scrutiny around issued tokens has increased in recent months.
- Through Base, Coinbase will allow developers to "directly integrate their product and provide fiat onramps," making it easy for builders in the space to onboard non-crypto native users.
- Coinbase also announced a Base Ecosystem Fund, which is setup to invest in early-stage projects building on Base.
- To commemorate the occasion, Coinbase is allowing anyone to mint a free, celebratory NFT on Zora through Sunday at midnight ET.
🧿 What About The Blue Dot NFT?
Notably absent from today's announcement was information about the mysterious blue dot NFT that prompted widespread speculation last night. Coinbase and its associates had included the blue dot icon in various social media posts throughout the day, and Coinbase employee Jesse Pollak tweeted a link to a blue dot NFT on OpenSea yesterday afternoon. There is no available information about the collection, and internet sleuths discovered that many of them had been issued to Coinbase employees.
Despite the lack of clarity, there have been several large, speculative purchases made in the collection, including a top sale of 5.99 ETH yesterday evening. Unfortunately, these buyers will have to wait a little longer to find out exactly what it is they have purchased.
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