Coinbase defends ETH holdings amid community criticism: Jesse Pollak

Jesse Pollak, the Coinbase executive behind the Base layer-2 network, fired back at Ethereum community members who’ve been accusing the exchange of dumping its ETH. His core argument: Coinbase holds more ETH than any non-DAT entity, and it’s not even close.

Pollak posted on X that Coinbase is “the largest non-DAT holder of ETH by an order of magnitude,” a claim that puts some distance between the company and the narrative that it’s quietly rotating out of Ethereum in favor of Bitcoin. The company’s ETH treasury holdings sit somewhere between 115,000 and 151,000 ETH, worth roughly $300M.

What sparked the backlash

The criticism has been building for months. Ethereum community members have grown increasingly vocal about what they see as a contradiction: Coinbase runs Base, one of the most active Ethereum layer-2 networks, while allegedly selling ETH generated from sequencer revenue and other operations.

Some critics point to Coinbase’s apparent preference for accumulating BTC on its corporate balance sheet while treating ETH more as an operational asset than a conviction hold.

Pollak’s response tried to reframe the conversation entirely. Rather than getting into the weeds of specific sell transactions, he pointed to Coinbase’s broader contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem. That includes work on EIP-4844, the upgrade that slashed layer-2 transaction costs through “blob” data, and the co-creation of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap.

Coinbase is “the largest non-DAT holder of ETH by an order of magnitude.”

He also emphasized the sheer number of users Coinbase has onboarded to Ethereum, arguing that bringing millions of people into the ecosystem counts for more than any single treasury decision.

The Base factor

Base launched in 2023 and quickly became one of Ethereum’s busiest layer-2 networks. It uses ETH for gas fees and has attracted significant DeFi and consumer application activity. The network has reached Stage 1 decentralization, a milestone that signals meaningful progress toward reducing Coinbase’s centralized control over the chain’s operations.

Coinbase operates Base’s sequencer, the component that orders and processes transactions. That sequencer generates revenue in ETH. When that ETH gets sold or converted, it looks to outside observers like the company is extracting value from Ethereum rather than reinvesting it.

Corporate treasuries and community expectations

Coinbase occupies an unusual position. It’s the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the US, which means its treasury decisions are visible in SEC filings and subject to shareholder scrutiny. The roughly 115,000 to 151,000 ETH figure that Pollak referenced represents the corporate treasury allocation specifically, distinct from the much larger customer balances that Coinbase custodies on behalf of its users.

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