Jesse Pollak, VP of Engineering at Coinbase and creator of the Base network, has defended the exchange against accusations from community members on social media who claim the company has been dumping Ethereum.
The public debate began when user chaskin.eth stated that resentment from the Ethereum community toward Coinbase was misplaced. Pollak agreed with the sentiment, expressing surprise at the criticism over ETH sales.
Critics, including user cyp.eth, have argued that Coinbase's values involve regularly selling ETH earned from Base execution fees into USD and Bitcoin. Base operates a sequencer that earns fees in ETH, which critics claim are converted rather than held long-term, with some observers noting that the company appears to treat ether as an operating asset.
In response, Pollak defended the exchange by highlighting its scale, asserting that Coinbase is the largest non-dedicated digital-asset-treasury holder of ETH by an order of magnitude. According to Strategic ETH Reserve tracker data, Coinbase holds approximately 151,180 ETH, ranking sixth on the list.
Pollak also pointed to the exchange's broader contributions to the ecosystem, including its role in shipping the EIP-4844 upgrade to reduce layer-2 costs, its part in creating the USDC stablecoin, and bringing millions of users into Ethereum. Base launched in 2023, has become one of Ethereum's busiest layer-2 networks, and recently reached Stage 1 decentralization to reduce direct control by Coinbase.
