Base has launched a new Creator Grant Program offering independent creators up to $4,000 to produce content about the Ethereum layer 2 network, its ecosystem and the developers building on it.
Applications opened on 2 September for writers, streamers, live show hosts, independent video creators and educators, Base said in a post on X.
The programme is open to writers producing deep dives, memes, analysis and social media threads. Creators running regular shows can also apply, while educators are eligible for funding to make Base-related content in their own languages.
Base has not said whether every successful applicant will receive the maximum $4,000 grant, nor explained how individual awards will be calculated. It also did not disclose the overall budget, the number of creators it plans to support or how long the initiative will run.
Alongside the grants, Base said selected creators would gain access to a pipeline of builders who could be featured in their work. Content produced through the scheme may also be promoted by the network’s regional social media accounts.
Newer creators can apply for separate “Creator of the Week” bounties worth up to $500. Base specifically urged independent creators, people operating their own shows and those whose work focuses exclusively on the network to take part.
The initiative comes fewer than two months after Base admitted that an earlier creator-focused social strategy had failed to meet expectations.
Base creator Jesse Pollak said in July that the project had spent much of 2024 and 2025 backing developers and social applications as a way of encouraging crypto adoption. However, demand for social products eventually “disintegrated completely”, Pollak said, leaving Base behind rival networks in areas such as perpetual futures and prediction markets.
Pollak later stepped back from leadership of the Base App and returned responsibility for the product to Coinbase, while continuing to concentrate on developing the Base blockchain.
That restructuring brought an end to Base’s Creator Rewards programme and removed its Farcaster-powered social feed. Creator Rewards, introduced in July 2025, had allowed creators to earn money from engagement while Base tested social features, mini apps and content coins.
Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong subsequently acknowledged that the content coin strategy had failed. Speaking in July, he said the company had changed direction earlier in 2026.
“They didn’t work and we pivoted early this year. We messed up, time to turn the page,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said Base’s main priorities were now trading, payments and AI agents, in that order, with most resources being directed towards trading infrastructure.
The new grant scheme differs from the token-based model pursued through Base’s social products. Its 2 September announcement focuses on direct payments for content production, access to builders, regional promotion and weekly bounties. It does not include tradable creator tokens or rewards in the form of tokens linked to engagement.
Base spent much of 2025 exploring ways for creators to earn directly from onchain content. Coinbase unveiled the Base App in July 2025 as a product combining social functions, payments, trading and decentralised applications.
Farcaster powered the app’s social elements, while its integration with Zora allowed posts to become tradable assets. The system automatically created ERC-20 tokens associated with social posts through Zora contracts, giving creators a share of the token supply and of fees generated when those assets were traded.
By August 2025, activity involving Zora creator coins had helped Base overtake Solana in daily token launches. More than 1.6 million tokens were created within weeks, while almost three million traders generated about $470m in trading volume.
Reports at the time suggested much of that activity came from traders seeking short-term opportunities rather than sustained participation.
Base later reconsidered its priorities as financial applications attracted greater attention across the cryptocurrency market. Pollak said the network’s concentration on social products had left it behind larger competitors in perpetual futures and prediction markets.
Base had products in both areas through Avantis and Limitless, but Pollak acknowledged that they were trailing rivals. Dune Analytics data cited in July showed Base-native Limitless represented about 0.5% of monthly prediction market notional volume.
Coinbase has expanded the financial products available through the Base App since the strategy changed.
On 19 August, Coinbase added Hyperliquid perpetual markets to the app, giving eligible users access to more than 290 contracts. Hyperliquid handles execution, while traders can open and manage positions using their existing wallets. Leverage is available up to 50 times on supported markets.
The contracts cover Bitcoin, Ethereum and markets connected to stocks and commodities. Coinbase said the service is not available to users in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other jurisdictions where access to leveraged crypto derivatives is restricted.
Later in August, Coinbase also introduced tokenised US stocks directly on Base. The first group included Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet. Each token represents a beneficial interest in a corresponding share held through segregated regulated custody.
The products are available to eligible investors outside the United States and can be traded around the clock. Coinbase Onchain SPV Ltd., incorporated in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, formally issues the securities, while Alpaca Securities manages the underlying equities through its brokerage and custody infrastructure.
