Base creator Jesse Pollak says equities and non-dollar stablecoins will lead upcoming 'tokenization supercycle'

Jesse Pollak, creator of the Base Layer 2 network, said tokenized equities and non-dollar stablecoins will lead the forthcoming "tokenization supercycle." 

"It's equities. U.S. and global equities. We already did dollars," Pollak said in an interview with The Block at Token2049 Singapore. "If I had to pick another, it's going to be non-dollar currencies. People are really sleeping on non-dollar currencies."

According to Pollak, the dollar will remain in high demand, but countries will stay sovereign, and people will continue to spend in their local currency. Base currently offers 32 stablecoins across 21 currencies, including the euro, the Canadian dollar, the Nigerian naira, and the Indonesian rupiah.

"I think we can start this transition of fintechs in the local regions, moving on to stablecoin rails as the underlying backend without people even really having to know about it," Pollak said.  

Over 99% of the stablecoin supply today is pegged to the U.S. dollar, but The Block's data show that Japanese yen- and sterling-pegged stablecoins have expanded their share among non-dollar stablecoins. South Korea, Hong Kong, and Brazil are among the regions that have been advancing initiatives for local currency-based stablecoins.

“That will grow, but it’s not going to grow as fast as tokenized equities,” Pollak said. He cited an eightfold rise in circulating supply over the past 12 months, from about $400 million in September 2025 to $3.3 billion last month.

Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on Base six weeks ago, with about $70 million to $100 million in daily trading volume, 50 stocks listed, and 250 expected by the end of the month, according to Pollak.

The Base creator said tokenization opens up previously limited access to equities to global traders, and offers a "clearly better experience" than regular trading — "They're 24/7, they're instantly sellable, you can send them to anyone."

Trading, payments, and financing

The equities push is among Base's broader changes made in 2026 and further scaled in 2027. Base stopped selling generic blockspace and started specializing the chain for three main focus areas: trading, payments, and financing.

On trading, Pollak said the 2027 work is enabling businesses to route their trades more easily through a simple interface or simple API, and also facilitating DEXs, PropMMs, and CLOBs to operate better onchain. 

On payments, he said Base plans to expand with a focus on machine payments, working with Cloudflare to build capacity for a million transactions per second. On financing, he said Base will accelerate growth on what has already become "the fastest growing financing market in the world," by providing easier APIs for businesses and improving chain infrastructure for efficiency.

Agentic payments cut across all three, he said. "We basically think that all of finance is going to be agentically driven over the next one, two years, and Base wants to be the place where that all happens."

Blast, Abstract winddown

Meanwhile, Pollak rejected the idea that the shutdown of Blast and Abstract closes the era of Layer 2 experimentation. 

On Oct. 2, Ethereum Layer 2 Blast announced that it would wind down because costs exceed revenue, and told users to leave by Oct. 26. A few days later, Pudgy Penguins-backed Abstract network said it will shut on Dec. 15, after parent company Igloo spent 18 months and lost "tens of millions of dollars" on the consumer chain.

Pollak explained that a chain needs a differentiated product and a distribution strategy, and that not every one of them will succeed.

"I have a ton of respect for Luca and the team. I have tons of respect for the Blast team. I think they both tried new things and innovated as they did it, and it didn't work out, but that's just part of the game," Pollak said. "Chains are businesses in lots of ways. Not all businesses are going to work."