Base App removes Farcaster-powered Talk feed to sharpen focus on onchain trading

The Base App, a non-custodial wallet previously known as Coinbase Wallet, has removed its Farcaster-powered social feed as the product narrows its focus to onchain trading, according to announcements shared Monday.

In a post on X, the Base App said its in-app feed will now center entirely on tradable assets and onchain activity, replacing the Talk feed that surfaced Farcaster posts directly inside the wallet. Coinbase is also winding down its Base Creator Rewards program, with final payouts scheduled later this month.

"We’re making the Base app the best place to trade onchain," the team wrote, adding that the creator program paid out more than $450,000 to roughly 17,000 creators over the past six months.

Base contributor Jesse Pollak said the decision reflects a clearer product direction rather than a retreat from social experimentation. "The app needs to have one primary focus, and that thing is trading," Pollak wrote in a separate post, adding that users should know exactly what they are getting when they open the app.

Pollak acknowledged he had been a strong advocate for integrating Farcaster content into Base, but said the rollout made clear the wallet was never meant to function as a full Farcaster client. Removing social content, he said, allows the team to "do less, better," while committing fully to building a trading-first experience.

The Base App launched as a rebrand of Coinbase Wallet as Base expanded its ecosystem beyond its Ethereum Layer 2 network, positioning the app as a gateway to onchain assets, swaps, and decentralized applications. Under the new update, the app’s feed will surface only assets and activity that users can trade directly.

Farcaster pivot

Farcaster, meanwhile, has been navigating its own strategic reset. The decentralized social protocol, which lets users post short messages, follow accounts, and interact through onchain identities, said in December it would prioritize wallet services over operating a standalone social app, citing stronger growth potential.

That shift was followed by the acquisition of Farcaster by Haun-backed Neynar, a developer platform that provides infrastructure and tooling for Farcaster clients. Around the same period, Farcaster said it planned to return roughly $180 million to venture backers while stressing that the protocol itself was not shutting down.

Most recently, Farcaster co-founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan joined stablecoin startup Tempo, further underscoring the protocol’s transition away from being founder-led as its ecosystem continues to evolve.