Put aside Bitcoin ETFs and institutional adoption for a second. The true story percolating behind this crypto summer is Coinbase’s largely uncontested revolution – their Base network. Is it just another Layer-2? Absolutely not. To me, that’s their Trojan horse, their ace in the hole, their… well, you know. It’s an unlikely secret weapon that’s going to disrupt the entire game as we know it, particularly for the NFT and digital art community.
NFTs Finally Affordable For Everyone?
Let's be honest, gas fees on Ethereum have been the bane of every NFT creator and collector's existence. Minting a new generative art piece and spending more in gas than the art itself will cost? Outrageous! It’s absurd to pay for bottled water at a Beyoncé concert – that’s highway robbery! Enter Base, with its much lower transaction costs – an effective antidote.
Think about it: micro-transactions for digital art become viable. New artists from all over the world can affordably mint and sell their work without being locked out. Now collectors can collect with confidence that they will not be punished with exorbitant fees. Base isn’t only lowering the cost of crypto – it’s opening up broader access, first delivering on some of crypto’s long-held promises of democratization.
Coinbase knows this. Their Q2 2025 numbers are proof. They survived the crypto winter by cutting expenses to the bone, and Base was the fuel powering that efficiency. Remarkably, costs were reduced to only 14% of net revenues. The Pectra upgrade, which doubled blob capacity, just added gasoline to the incinerator, turbocharging Base’s cost-effectiveness. Transaction counts exploded, jumping 300% quarter-over-quarter. Nearly $20 billion in weekly USDC transactions operating on Base says it all, producing $112 million in annual revenue.
Centralization A Necessary Evil?
Now, here's where things get spicy. The crypto purists, the decentralization maximalists, will scream bloody murder: "Base is centralized! It goes against everything crypto stands for!" And they have a point. As of yet, Base isn’t as decentralized as some would hope though.
Here's the unexpected connection: sometimes, you need a little centralization to achieve massive scale and usability. Think of it like this: a perfectly decentralized government might be philosophically pure, but it's incredibly slow and inefficient. In truth, a benevolent dictatorship—dangerous as the concept is—would get so much more done so much more quickly.
Base is Coinbase’s Ethereum scalability benevolent dictatorship. It's a pragmatic trade-off. Is it perfect? No. But do we really have to do that to onboard the next wave of users, particularly in the NFT world? I think so. We can't let ideological purity paralyze progress. We want to make sure that these NFTs are accessible to millions of people, not just the crypto elite.
This is where the real controversy comes in, and honestly, I’m all for it. Let the debate rage. While the rest of the world scrambles to find the “best” solution to scale Ethereum, Coinbase is doing it.
Coinbase's Valuation Justified Now?
Coinbase’s forward P/E multiple (~42x) is hard to swallow considering that financial institutions like CME Group trade at ~24.8x. Are they overvalued? Maybe. Are we missing the forest for the trees on this one? Definitely.
For us, Base isn’t simply a cost-saving measure, it’s a moat. It's the ability to offer crypto transactions at prices that competitors can't match without sacrificing their own margins. At the same time, it has the potential to be the underlying infrastructure layer for the next generation of decentralized apps. This is particularly the case for applications related to NFTs and digital artwork.
If crypto adoption grinds to a halt, then sure, that $10 billion valuation would be a nightmare. If Base can help unlock the true potential of NFTs, it’ll draw millions of new users into the ecosystem. If that is the case, that 42x P/E will look like a bargain in retrospect.
Because of derivatives and institutional services provided by Coinbase, analysts are optimistic on Q3 2025 revenue. Macroeconomic turbulence and crypto volatility are still capable of crushing these optimistic hopes. Regulatory uncertainty, most notably around Coinbase’s partnerships with Stripe and Shopify, is a cloud hanging over the company.
I'm betting on Base. I'm betting on Coinbase's vision. I’m wagering that the future of NFTs is low-cost, easy-to-use, and developed on Base. Now, get out there and explore some of the amazing NFT projects coming to Base and let us know what you think. Are you seeing the future, too?
