Overview

• Buterin publicly defended Base as non-custodial, saying operators cannot seize funds or block withdrawals, and pointed to L2Beat’s Stage 1 safeguards for user exits.
• Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal argued sequencers are infrastructure rather than marketplaces and likened them to AWS hosting applications that perform trading logic.
• Base cofounder Jesse Pollak said the sequencer orders transactions first-in, first-out and batches them to Ethereum, does not match orders, and can be bypassed via direct L1 submission.
• SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce warned that centralized transaction ordering resembling a matching engine could be treated as an exchange, leaving regulatory outcomes unresolved.
• Base remains one of the busiest L2s at roughly 160 TPS with about $15 billion in TVL, and its leaders say a native token and governance are being explored without firm plans.