Jesse Pollak Pushes Back On Coinbase ETH Selling Criticism, Points To 150K ETH Treasury

Base creator Jesse Pollak has pushed back against criticism that Coinbase is selling ETH while benefiting from Ethereum, pointing to the exchange’s roughly 150,000 ETH corporate position and years of investment across the network.

Pollak argued that Coinbase has held about 150,000 ETH through multiple market cycles, while describing the company as the largest ETH holder outside dedicated digital asset treasury companies by a wide margin.

Coinbase’s latest regulatory filing backs up the scale of that position. The company held 150,279 ETH for investment as of June 30, compared with 151,175 ETH at the end of 2025.

Pollak Defends Coinbase’s Ethereum Commitment

The debate intensified after Ethereum Foundation App Relations Lead Jason Chaskin argued that hostility toward Coinbase overlooks how deeply the company is integrated into Ethereum.

Pollak expanded that argument, pointing beyond the ETH balance to Coinbase’s role as a major customer and developer across the ecosystem. Base settles on Ethereum and uses ETH for gas, while Coinbase has also built products spanning USDC, cbBTC, smart wallets and onchain payments.

That relationship has been developing for years. Coinbase was already being described as an increasingly Ethereum-focused public company as Base transaction activity, ETH-denominated sequencer revenue and stablecoin usage expanded.

Pollak also rejected the idea that Ethereum users should be judged by whether their activity fits a preferred vision for the network. He urged the community to stop “moralizing” Ethereum’s customers, extending the argument to trading, DeFi, memes and broader financial activity.

Coinbase Helped Push EIP-4844 Into Ethereum

Coinbase’s technical contribution extends into Ethereum itself. Base and Coinbase engineers worked on EIP-4844 for roughly two years, contributing prototype implementations, testing infrastructure and engineering work before blobs were activated through the Dencun upgrade.

EIP-4844 became a major part of Ethereum’s rollup scaling strategy by dramatically reducing the cost of publishing Layer 2 transaction data.

Coinbase has since expanded further into smart accounts and automated onchain execution. Base MCP brought wallet actions to AI agents, while Coinbase’s x402 protocol has developed a payment layer allowing software and AI agents to make programmatic stablecoin payments.

Base itself has also moved away from its earlier social-first strategy. The Base App shifted toward trading as its primary product focus as Coinbase increased its emphasis on payments, markets and financial applications.

Coinbase Filing Shows ETH Position Barely Changed

Coinbase’s reported investment balance provides a clearer picture than exchange-wallet movements alone. Corporate ETH held for investment declined by only 896 ETH between December 31 and June 30, from 151,175 ETH to 150,279 ETH.

The company separately reported another 10,480 ETH held for operations at the end of June, alongside its much larger custodial and customer-facing Ethereum business.

Coinbase’s June 30 balance sheet valued its 150,279 ETH investment position at $235.7 million, against a recorded cost basis of $340.6 million.

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