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Base App is shutting down its seven-month-old Creator Rewards Program and removing its Farcaster-powered social feed, pivoting the Ethereum Layer 2 platform entirely toward on-chain asset trading after distributing approximately $450,000 to 17,000 creators.
The decision, announced on Monday, February 9, 2026, affects thousands of creators who participated in the incentive scheme and signals a clear change in priorities for the Ethereum Layer 2 platform.
Base App confirmed that both the Base app Creator Rewards Program and its Farcaster-powered social feed will be sunset as part of a broader move to streamline the product.
The company said the change reflects user feedback and internal assessments showing that trading functionality, rather than social interaction, should sit at the core of the app’s experience.
“We’re making the Base app the best place to trade onchain,” — Base App, via its official X account.
The Base app Creator Rewards Program was launched in July 2025 to encourage creators to post content and drive engagement within the app’s social feed. Built around Farcaster, the initiative aimed to blend social discovery with on-chain activity, rewarding creators whose content gained traction.
Over its seven-month lifespan, the Base app Creator Rewards Program distributed approximately $450,000 to about 17,000 creators.
According to figures shared by the Base App team, that translated into an average payout of roughly $26 per participant. The final rewards are expected to be processed by February 18, 2026, with the program officially concluding the preceding Sunday.
Despite its scale, Base App concluded that the Base app Creator Rewards Program did not meaningfully advance the platform’s long-term goals. In its announcement, the company said it was refocusing the app so that its main feed highlights on-chain activity tied directly to tradable assets, rather than social discussions.
“Starting today, the feed will focus entirely on tradable assets. This means we’re removing the Talk feed in favor of a feed of onchain activity,” — Base App, in its announcement.
Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base, said the shutdown of the Base app Creator Rewards Program reflects a broader “do less, better” philosophy that emerged after months of experimentation. According to Pollak, while social features helped test new ideas, many users felt the experience was too close to Web2-style feeds and did not sufficiently differentiate itself.
“The app needs to have one primary focus, and that thing is trading,” — Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base.
Pollak explained that Base App initially tried to balance social interaction with asset discovery, but the split focus diluted the product. Under the revised roadmap, the platform will prioritize distributing and surfacing a wide range of tradable on-chain assets, including meme tokens, creator coins, tokenized stocks, and prediction markets.
Within this framework, the Base app Creator Rewards Program was viewed as misaligned with the app’s core mission. While creator incentives helped populate the feed, Base concluded that rewarding social engagement alone was not the most effective way to grow on-chain trading activity.
Pollak added that social elements are not disappearing entirely. Features such as leaderboards and copy trading will continue to exist, but only as secondary layers that support trading rather than define the experience.
The removal of the Farcaster-powered feed also underscores Base App’s reassessment of its role within the social ecosystem. Pollak acknowledged that the app functioned as an “imperfect Farcaster client” and suggested that users primarily interested in social interaction would be better served by using Farcaster directly.
This transition effectively closes the chapter on the Base app Creator Rewards Program, which was tightly coupled to the Talk feed and social discovery. For creators who relied on the program, the change means future monetization on Base will be more closely tied to asset issuance, trading activity, or Mini Apps rather than post engagement.
Despite the shift, Base App said it will continue to support Mini Apps and creator-linked tokens, including Pollak’s own $JESSE token. These tools are positioned as ways for creators to participate in the ecosystem through on-chain products rather than through the Base app Creator Rewards Program model.
The decision also aligns with Pollak’s stated stance against token price intervention. By focusing on open trading and market-driven outcomes, Base App is reinforcing its commitment to what it describes as free, open, and fair on-chain markets.
