Do you believe Base will be scammed by being overdrawn? Cobie took over and admitted it: We overextended and drained users’ trust

Crypto KOL Rune went on the attack on X, saying that Base’s current management has been steadily eroding user trust. The community broadly believes that “anything related to Base is wrong if you trust it for more than 24 hours.” Cobie, who has just taken over Base App and Coinbase’s trading products, personally replied. He first distanced himself from responsibility for the Base chain, then admitted that Base and Coinbase—due to some avoidable mistakes—have overdrawn a large amount of user trust.
(Background: Base chain founder Jesse Pollak reflected on himself: “I was wrong! I admit my social strategy failed,” and announced a pivot to a “global financial blockchain.”)
(Background add-on: Behind Coinbase’s acquisition of Echo—Cobie’s 13 years from entering with $200 to reaping both fame and fortune)

Key takeaways

• KOL Rune launches an attack, saying the community has already concluded that “believing in Base for more than 24 hours is wrong”
• Cobie responds by clarifying that he doesn’t run the Base chain, but admits avoidable mistakes have squandered a large amount of user trust
• Rune says more than 10,000 Base users have suffered roughly 99% asset losses due to the management layer

On Saturday (7/18), Crypto KOL Rune threw out a line on X, laying bare the collective mindset of the Base community right now: users have already decided that “believing anything related to Base for more than 24 hours is wrong.”

His target is Cobie, who has just taken over Base App. Rune said Cobie’s goal is to drive on-chain trading, but under Base’s current management culture, it’s difficult to attract new users.

The impact of this sentence is not that it insults the product for being bad—it’s that it insults time. When a chain is publicly evaluated as having a “24-hour trust validity period,” it means the community no longer has the willingness to leave assets overnight.

I decided rather than chilling to instead make my life incredibly stressful and busy so now i am responsible for trading products at Coinbase (CB app / Pro / Baseapp / etc).

I cant explain why I did this except I like the opportunity to make something actually good more than I…

— Cobie (@cobie) July 16, 2026

Cobie first draws up the boundaries of his responsibilities

Cobie himself stepped in to respond. He first explained that he took over the work related to Base App and Coinbase trading products only a few days ago, but he is not responsible for the Base chain.

Coinbase has long been distant from users, especially native crypto users, and Base and Coinbase also overdrawd a large amount of user trust due to some mistakes that could have been avoided.

He said he hopes to listen more to voices from on-chain users in the future and build products that users truly want to use.

Cobie’s real name is Jordan Fish. Last year, Coinbase acquired his token issuance platform Echo for roughly $375 million in cash and stock, bringing him into Coinbase. On the 15th of this month, Base founder Jesse Pollak announced that he was stepping down from the leadership position of Base App and focusing on Base chain infrastructure, handing the App over to Cobie. At the same time, he admitted that his bet on on-chain social was “absolutely wrong,” and that attempts like Farcaster, Zora, mini-apps, and creator tokens “completely unraveled.” Cobie then joked on X that he could have gone to rest, but instead chose to make his life extremely busy and full of pressure.

10,000 people lose 99%

Rune did not stop. He responded again, saying Coinbase’s biggest problem is not only that it distances itself from users, but also that it has long ignored— even harmed—its own users. He said that currently more than 10,000 Base users are suffering approximately 99% asset losses due to the Base and Coinbase management layers’ trust issues, and the management’s attitude toward related events has added another layer of dissatisfaction in the community.

The number of people who lost money cannot be practically verified, but the incident it points to is not hard to find. After the official Base account promoted the content coin “Base is for everyone” on Zora, once it went live, its market cap surged to between $15 million and $20 million within a few hours, and then the decline exceeded 99%. At the time, the community directly accused it of pump-and-dump.

The later numbers look even worse. Zora’s token fell by about 95% from its August 2025 peak. Daily trading volume dropped by about 99.8% from its April 2025 peak; on July 15, it was only about $112,000. As for the minting volume of the new creator coins, it fell from 118,069 tokens at the beginning of this year to 852 tokens on July 15.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also publicly admitted on the 14th of this month that the content coin strategy “didn’t work”—the company messed it up. This is exactly what Rune keeps clinging to.

He believes Base has the foundation to become the industry’s best Layer 2 infrastructure, but what’s truly missing is leadership that is willing to be accountable to users. He said he hopes Cobie can change this, but emphasized that the current problem is no longer just damaged trust—it’s that community trust has almost evaporated.

Frequently asked questions

What does Cobie handle after taking over Base App?

Cobie’s real name is Jordan Fish. Starting July 15, he took over Base App and Coinbase’s trading product line, covering Coinbase App and Pro. He has publicly stated that he is not responsible for the Base blockchain itself; the chain’s infrastructure is still led by founder Jesse Pollak.

Why has the Base community lost trust in management?

After the content coin “Base is for everyone” promoted by Base’s official account launched, it fell by more than 99% within a few hours. Zora’s token dropped about 95% from its high. On the 14th of this month, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong admitted that the content coin strategy failed, and user losses have already occurred.