Coinbase rebrands Base App back to Coinbase Wallet after just over a year as social experiment falls short

Coinbase is renaming the Base App back to Coinbase Wallet, unwinding a rebrand introduced just over a year ago as the company steers its self-custodial product toward trading and broader multichain coverage.

According to Ryan Kass, Head of Coinbase Wallet Product, the app is positioned as a "test kitchen" for assets and products that may not be listed on Coinbase's centralized exchange. The first such example is perpetual futures powered by Hyperliquid. The wallet also carries long-tail assets and plans to add new chains as they launch, alongside prediction markets and tokenized stocks. Because all trading happens onchain, users can follow other traders — something Kass said can help them "gain additional alpha."

Why the name is coming back

Coinbase said the Base App had outgrown its original framing and evolved into a wider, multichain trading venue, making the Coinbase Wallet label the better fit while keeping the strongest parts of the Base App. Asked about the quick reversal, Kass said the company prides itself on moving fast and pivoting when necessary, adding that the wallet name reflects the product's role as Coinbase's self-custodial entry point to an "everything exchange," giving users access to onchain finance broadly.

Coinbase is marketing the app around "no KYC, no waiting, and no borders," saying users can download it and begin trading within minutes, with earlier access to new assets. Its website notes that some features still carry geographic restrictions. The wallet remains self-custodial, with users holding their own keys, and assets appear by default once minted on a supported chain. Kass said the wallet detects and hides scam or malicious tokens, while new markets and asset classes such as predictions or tokenized stocks pass through product and compliance reviews first. Coinbase monetizes through trading and product fees but declined to detail the fee structure or say whether the trading pivot has lifted user numbers.

Coinbase rebranded Coinbase Wallet as the Base App in July 2025, pitching it as an all-in-one product spanning social networking, mini-apps, messaging, payments and trading. CEO Brian Armstrong said in March that the social experiment "didn't quite work" and that the app had shifted toward trading as a self-custodial counterpart to the main Coinbase app. In July, Base creator Jesse Pollak handed app leadership to Jordan "Cobie" Fish after acknowledging some social and creator features had underdelivered, and told The Block's The Starting Block podcast the product would become less Base-centric.

Following the rebrand, Coinbase Wallet supports Base, Robinhood Chain, Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Monad, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon and Avalanche, with more planned. Robinhood Chain and Monad are additions compared with the Base App's earlier network list. Kass said Base remains central, with Base assets surfacing in the app as they trend alongside other leading networks.