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BTC 
ETH Jesse Pollak, vice president of engineering at Coinbase, responded positively to accusations that he had sold Ethereum on X. The creator of the Base protocol told people concerned that the exchange is the world's largest holder of Ethereum.
How a "completely misaligned" comment sparked controversy
The controversy arose when chaskin.eth (@jchaskin22) pointed out that the Ethereum community's resentment against Coinbase was "completely misaligned" and likened the anger to a company turning against its largest customer because they chose to reduce their purchases of shares. Pollak agreed, saying it was "unbelievable" to see Coinbase under attack due to the Ethereum sale.
But this did not win the approval of everyone. Cyp.eth (@0xcyp) responded to venture capitalist Nick Tomaino's praise for Coinbase's "values consistent with Ethereum," saying the company's values include "continuing to convert Ethereum from Base execution fees into U.S. dollars and Bitcoin." The response expressed all the dissatisfaction with Coinbase: the people in charge of operating Base earned revenue in the form of Ethereum and then allegedly sold it for other assets.
Pollak's "Order of magnitude" defense
Pollak chose not to dwell on specific deals and instead defended them around size. He believes that Coinbase is "the world's largest Ethereum holder of a non-dedicated digital asset treasury, with an order of magnitude ahead of its holdings," which means it holds far more Ethereum than any non-specialized digital asset treasury management peers. He added: "Coinbase has actually held 150,000 Ethereums for several years." These Ethereum have gone through market cycles and various narrative shifts about whether the second layer network is the future of Ethereum.
The public data is consistent with Pollak's argument. On the Strategic Ethereum Reserve tracker, Coinbase is listed as holding approximately 151,180 Ethereum units worth approximately US$256 million, ranking sixth behind dedicated treasury companies such as Bitmine Immersion Tech that hold more than 5.5 million Ethereum units.
Where does the sorter revenue flow?
The criticism is mainly aimed at the Base protocol. Coinbase runs the network's sorters-the components responsible for sorting and processing transactions. The sorter collects fees in the form of Ethereum, which are then converted into U.S. dollars or Bitcoin, a move believed to have dragged down Ethereum's value rather than enhanced it. Others pointed out that the company treats Bitcoin as an asset on its balance sheet and Ethereum as an operating asset rather than a belief asset held over the long term.
Chaskin.eth agrees with this priority view and recalls that approximately 75% of Coinbase's revenue comes from Bitcoin transactions and holdings, and hopes this ratio can change.
Ecosystem perspective
Pollak counters that just looking at the treasury accounts ignores the broader picture. He praised Coinbase for promoting the EIP-4844 upgrade-which reduces Layer 2 network costs by freeing up "Blob" data-and for its role in creating USDC, one of the largest stablecoins. He went on to emphasize that the exchange had brought millions of users to the Ethereum ecosystem, saying this user coverage far exceeds any single balance sheet decision.
The Base protocol will be launched in 2023 and has now become one of Ethereum's busiest layer 2 networks and has just reached the first stage of decentralization, which reduces Coinbase's direct control over the chain's operation.
