And Edison’s latest post actually makes this question even more important.
The vision is clear:
Trade everything from one interface.
Mobile-first.
Cross-chain abstraction.
Unified USD balance.
Tokenized equities.
AI agents executing strategies through Based.
All of that may improve the Based product.
But what does any of it do for the
$BASED token?
If the mobile app becomes better, users can trade more assets, volume increases, and AI agents eventually execute millions of trades through Based — that could be great for the platform.
But none of those things, by themselves, create a reason to buy or hold
$BASED.
This is exactly why the distinction between product growth and token value accrual matters.
If increased users, volume and revenue do not translate into buybacks, burns, revenue-funded staking rewards, direct distributions, or some other mechanism that creates demand for or accrues value to
$BASED, then the token can remain economically disconnected from the success of the product.
We already have staking rewards. But if those rewards are primarily emissions, that still doesn't answer the question.
Where is the mechanism that turns Based’s success into value for
$BASED?
A great mobile trading app gives people a reason to use Based.
A great AI trading layer gives agents a reason to use Based.
More chains and more assets give traders a reason to use Based.
But what gives anyone a reason to buy and hold
$BASED?
That is the missing part I want the team to explain.
A not-so-short summary
Based went from the place where people trade crypto perps to equity perps as well. Personally, I think the tokenized equities market is going to get larger.
Our product vision is that we want people to be able to do everything from one interface without having to switch apps.
Trade Everything on Based: we recently added support to trade not just perps, but also coins on Robinhood, Solana, BSC, and more chains. You can trade not just memecoins, but also equities tokens too.
Cross-chain abstraction is key. We used intents to find the best quote for users across chains.
The Unified USD balance: you could keep all your USDC on Hyperliquid. If you want to swap coins to something on Robinhood, you can. If you want to long or short a coin, it’s also easy to do so.
Based is mobile-first. More than 80% of our daily users/volume comes from the mobile app. The mobile app is now the place that we ship stuff first (used to be the other way).
Agentic trading: we’ve built an intelligence layer, which we have built with Based Infinity. It connects to up to 16 data sources and constructs the best response based on live data, instead of stale data.
The next step is to work on orchestration and execution. We are adding an interface that will let agents run strategies. You can describe your strategies with plain words, and AI agents can use Based to execute trades.
Based = wallets for AI agents. Connect your AI to Based.