Rune: Base has lost community trust, Cobie responds that he will push Coinbase to be closer to on-chain users.

Amid recent community controversy surrounding Base, crypto KOL Rune published a post on X questioning that Cobie’s goal in taking over Base App is to drive on-chain transactions, but Base’s current management has continuously eroded user trust, leading users to believe “it is a mistake to trust anything related to Base for more than 24 hours” — a culture that makes attracting new users nearly impossible. In response, Cobie clarified that he took over work for Base App and Coinbase’s trading products several days ago, but is not in charge of the Base chain. He admitted Coinbase has long been distant from users, especially native crypto users; Base and Coinbase also squandered massive user trust through avoidable missteps, and he aims to listen more to on-chain user feedback and build products users actually want to use moving forward. Rune later replied that Coinbase’s core issue is not just distance from users, but long-term neglect and even harm to its own user base. He stated that over 10,000 Base users have suffered roughly 99% asset losses due to trusting Base/Coinbase management, and Base’s leadership’s handling of these incidents has further stoked community frustration. Rune noted that Base possesses the infrastructure to become the crypto sector’s top Layer 2, but what it truly lacks is leadership willing to be accountable to users. He expressed hope that Cobie can turn things around, but stressed that Base’s current problem is not merely damaged trust — community trust has nearly fully evaporated.