Coinbase is set to bring the Station Labs team in-house to enhance its smart wallet Base, leveraging their expertise in developing on-chain tools. Station Labs, founded by Tina He and co-founder Mind Apivessa, both former Facebook employees, will contribute to Base’s functionality. Base aims to serve as the on-chain hub for Coinbase products, users, and assets, boasting $130 billion in assets.

Base is constructed on Optimism’s OP Stack, an open-source framework designed to create scalable, secure Ethereum Layer-2 solutions. This framework underpins a "superchain" of interoperable L2s, enhancing sequencing and governance.

Coinbase identified the complexity of onboarding as a major obstacle to broader on-chain adoption for both consumers and developers. Station Labs' founders bring substantial experience in creating tools that integrate core on-chain elements like wallets, token-based experiences, and simplified gas fee management.

Coinbase's vision for Base and the larger L2 ecosystem includes providing user-friendly tools to lower barriers, promoting phraseless and gasless on-chain experiences. The addition of Station Labs' expertise is expected to accelerate this mission and support the next generation of on-chain developers.

In May, interest in the term "onchain" spiked to an all-time high on Google, highlighting growing public awareness and interest in blockchain technology.

Additionally, Coinbase has recently made a $25 million donation to the pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake, matching contributions from Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz. This donation boosts Fairshake's funding to $160 million, positioning it among the top five largest super PACs for the current election cycle.