Base creator Jesse Pollak says tokenized equities and non-dollar stablecoins will lead the next "tokenization supercycle," with Coinbase's tokenized stock offering on the Base network already generating roughly $70 million to $100 million in daily trading volume just six weeks after launch.

Pollak, who leads the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2, laid out his thesis in an interview with The Block at Token2049 Singapore.

"It's equities. U.S. and global equities. We already did dollars," Pollak said. "If I had to pick another, it's going to be non-dollar currencies. People are really sleeping on non-dollar currencies."

What is driving the tokenization push?

Coinbase launched tokenized stocks on Base six weeks ago. The offering currently lists 50 stocks, with Pollak expecting that number to reach 250 by the end of the month, according to his figures.

Pollak argues tokenized equities expand access to markets previously limited to certain jurisdictions while offering structural advantages over conventional brokerage rails. "They're 24/7, they're instantly sellable, you can send them to anyone," he said.

The growth in tokenized equities has outpaced every other tokenized asset class. Pollak 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.

Non-dollar stablecoins represent his second bet. Over 99% of stablecoin supply today is pegged to the U.S. dollar, but The Block's data show Japanese yen- and sterling-pegged stablecoins have expanded their share among non-dollar tokens. South Korea, Hong Kong, and Brazil are among the jurisdictions advancing local-currency stablecoin initiatives.

Pollak expects the dollar to remain in high demand, but says sovereign countries will keep their local currencies in circulation for domestic spending. Base already supports 32 stablecoins across 21 currencies, including the euro, Canadian dollar, Nigerian naira, and 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.

Nonetheless, he sees the non-dollar segment as the slower of the two drivers. "That will grow, but it's not going to grow as fast as tokenized equities," he said.

How is Base restructuring around trading, payments and financing?

The equities push forms part of broader changes Base made in 2026 and plans to scale further in 2027. The network stopped selling generic blockspace and specialized the chain around three focus areas: trading, payments, and financing.

On trading, Pollak said 2027 work centers on letting businesses route trades through a simple interface or API, and on helping decentralized exchanges, proprietary market makers, and central limit order books operate more effectively onchain.

On payments, Base plans to prioritize machine payments and is working with Cloudflare to build capacity for one million transactions per second.

On financing, Pollak described the sector as "the fastest growing financing market in the world" and said Base will accelerate growth through easier business-facing APIs and improved chain infrastructure efficiency.

Agentic payments cut across all three verticals. "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," Pollak said.

Do Blast and Abstract shutdowns end Layer 2 experimentation?

Pollak rejected the idea that the winddowns of Blast and Abstract close the era of Layer 2 experimentation.

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

Pollak said a chain needs both a differentiated product and a distribution strategy, and not every network will clear that bar.

"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."

The near-term milestones to watch are concrete: Base's tokenized stock listings expanding to 250 by month-end, the Abstract shutdown on Dec. 15, and the rollout of the chain's trading and machine-payments infrastructure through 2027.