Coinbase Launches Base App to Integrate Social Media, Payments, and Trading

Coinbase has introduced the Base App, a comprehensive platform that integrates social media, payments, and trading functionalities onto a single blockchain network. This new app replaces the existing Coinbase Wallet and is built on the company's proprietary public blockchain network, Base, which is constructed on Ethereum. The Base App aims to bring more users into the crypto economy by offering a seamless onchain experience that includes wallet, trading, and payment features, as well as social media, messaging, and support for mini apps.

The Base App is designed around four key experiences: a social network powered by Farcaster, an app discovery hub, end-to-end encrypted messaging with AI agents for trading and transactions, and a trading and payments wallet. The app is currently in beta with a waitlist, and users can discover and use mini apps directly from their feed, ranging from games to prediction markets, without requiring separate downloads.

To support the Base App, Coinbase has introduced two key features: Base Account, a universal onchain identity that simplifies wallet setup with a single sign-in, and Base Pay, a new checkout tool enabling USDC payments across supported platforms. Base Pay, developed in collaboration with Shopify, allows for one-click checkout for USDC payments across the web and is set to expand to brick-and-mortar stores with tap-to-pay support by the end of the year. Shopify has already enabled this feature for tens of thousands of its merchants and plans to roll it out to all merchants by year-end. Additionally, Shopify will offer 1% cash back in the U.S. for users who pay with USDC on Base later this year.

The Base network has garnered attention for its ability to settle payments in less than a second for less than a cent, a feature that its proponents believe will drive its growth. Coinbase aims to leverage this technology to create a new economic model for content creators, offering them more direct and diverse monetization options, as well as greater control over their identity and data. The company will fund creator rewards and waive USDC transaction fees within chats in the app to encourage more users to adopt the platform.

The launch of the Base App comes at a time when the crypto industry is experiencing a surge in product launches and rollouts, driven by pro-crypto policies and clearer regulatory frameworks. Coinbase, in particular, has been actively expanding its offerings, with recent collaborations to integrate USDC-powered payments. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has expressed ambitions to make USDC the leading stablecoin globally and to position Coinbase as the top financial services app within the next five to ten years.

Coinbase's Base App is part of the company's strategy to diversify its revenue streams, which have traditionally relied heavily on trading activities. The concept of a super app, which bundles multiple services into one mobile application, has been highly successful in regions like China but has yet to gain significant traction in the West. Coinbase's Base App seeks to differentiate itself by focusing on the crypto economy, aiming to attract users who may not be primarily interested in buying or trading cryptocurrencies. This move is part of Coinbase's strategy to diversify its revenue streams, which have traditionally relied heavily on trading activities.