Vitalik Buterin Ends Speculation on Ethereum's Base, Coinbase CEO Cosigns

Base, the Coinbase-backed EVM chain pitched as Ethereum’s own layer 2, has just received its strongest endorsement yet, straight from Vitalik Buterin.

In a rare social media shoutout, Vitalik declared Base the right way to scale, offering a faster user experience through centralized sequencing while remaining connected to Ethereum’s security layer, meaning that funds cannot be stolen or frozen.

Vitalik explained that Base does not hold custody, withdrawals are guaranteed by the Ethereum mainnet code and the L2Beat stage 1 tag means that users are truly protected against rug pulls, rather than it being just marketing talk. He also dismissed the idea that L2s are “just servers,” citing examples where censorship was blocked and funds remained secure even when operators were offline.

Even Base’s security council setup includes external members to prevent unilateral control.

Coinbase CEO Armstrong reacts

Brian Armstrong did not pen a long essay but simply boosted the thread with a short comment: “Great thread to read through on Base,” which is enough to show that Coinbase is fully supporting Vitalik’s perspective.

From the Base side, Jesse Pollak spelled out how sequencers work: they bundle and order transactions, then the main layer settles them and at any moment a user can bypass Base entirely by going straight through Ethereum. He added that Base already runs on stage-1 decentralization, with permissionless block proposals live, while stage 2 is in progress.

Is Base legit?

The takeaway is clearly that Base is not a custodial sidechain or an exchange in disguise. It is Ethereum infrastructure built to scale without breaking trust. Vitalik endorsed it, Armstrong amplified it and now the debate over Base’s legitimacy appears to be over.