Morning Minute: Coinbase Teases a Network Token

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors flat while stocks and gold hit new ATHs; BTC at $115,300
• Coinbase teases a network token in exploration
• Polymarket’s latest filings hint at potential token drop
• Saylor & others to meet with Sen. Lummis today to discuss Strategic BTC Reserve
• MetaMask debuts its mUSD stablecoin

🔥 Coinbase Teases a Network Token

After years of waiting, Base maxis are about to be rewarded.

A Base token is finally in the works.

📌 What Happened

Coinbase’s L2, Base, is officially “exploring a network token.”

Jesse Pollak revealed it on stage at BaseCamp, with Coinbase reiterating the plan on X.

There is no timeline or design yet, but they emphasized doing it in the open and with U.S. regulators.

Base already posts heavyweight usage:

• ~13M daily transactions
• ~865k active addresses
• ~$5B TVL
• ~$1.28B 24h DEX volume

Those metrics would make a Base token catapult to the top of any L2 token list upon its debut.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

• “We’re going to be exploring a network token… I will be up front with y’all, it’s early.” – Jesse Pollak at BaseCamp
• “We’re exploring a Base network token. It could be a great tool for accelerating decentralization and expanding creator and developer growth in the ecosystem. To be clear, there are no definitive plans. We’re just updating our philosophy. As of now, we’re exploring it.” – Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, on X

🧠 Why It Matters

If Coinbase actually drops a network token, the market will immediately reach for comps.

Here are the cleanest comparables and quick-and-dirty valuation ranges using today’s on-chain and market data

Usage + TVL snapshot (today):

• Base (fdv TBD): ~$5.0B TVL; DEX volume (24h): ~$1.28B
• Arbitrum (fdv of $5B): ~$3.45B TVL; DEX volume (24h): ~$521M
• Optimism (fdv of $3.2B): Bridged TVL: ~$2.27B; DEX volume (24h): ~$29M
• BNB Chain (fdv of $128B): DEX volume (24h): ~$2.48B

Using those numbers (ignoring BNB for now), a back-of-the-napkin scenario for a Base token’s market cap would put it at $6B-$7B fair value out of the gate.

But with COIN stock trading at $84B, it would probably also get a bit of a “Coinbase premium,” like BNB gets with Binance.

That likely pushes it to the $8B-$10B range (of course, pending tokenomics).

So yes, this is a big deal. A new 10-figure token might be incoming.

Now the key questions become – When token? And when airdrop?

Sadly, likely not soon at all.

I’d guess Q4 2026 for a Base token based on the team’s “exploratory” comments.l

As for the airdrop, I’d bet on the community being rewarded. Launching a token without an airdrop would be a deathblow to Coinbase sentiment.

So if you haven’t already, maybe use the Base network. Rewards are likely coming to those who wait…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

In Corporate Treasuries

• Forward Industries completed a $1.6B SOL buy becoming the biggest SOL TreasuryCo
• BMNR disclosed holdings of 2.151M ETH ($9.73B) and $569M in cash
• Helius raised $500M to build a Solana TreasuryCo
• Strategy bought just 525 BTC for about $60.2M last week, lifting holdings to 638,985 BTC
• David Bailey’s NAKA stock plunged ~55% after PIPE shares registration and writing a letter to shareholders encouraging them to sell if they wanted

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are mostly flat; DOGE even, Shiba -1%, PEPE -1%, PENGU -1%, BONK +1%, TRUMP -1%, SPX -1%, and FARTCOIN even
• Alex Becker’s StrSzn streamer coin did over $69M in volume and generated $300k+ in fees (mc at $5M), as most streamer coins fell substantially
• RUNNER (+465%) and GoProCat (+200%) were top movers
• ZORA jumped 22% on the back of the Base token news

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap even at $13.6B, leaders were mixed
• FARTCOIN (even), VIRTUAL (+1%), TIBBIR (+2%), aixbt (-1%) & ai16z (+1%)
• CLANKER (+12%), YNE (+10%) and Nuit (+6%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH NFT leaders were mixed; Punks +1% at 48.9 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 10.1, BAYC +1% at 8.95 ETH
• Shrimpers (+18%) and Gemesis (+11%) were top movers
• Abstract NFTs were very green led by Gigaverse ROMs and Noah’s Ark
• Seedphrase acquired Wolf Game and will be moving it to Abstract