A "Fair Launch" Meets Flashbots: What Really Happened to Base Co-Founder Token $JESSE?

The launch of Base co-founder Jesse Pollak’s $JESSE token was framed as a milestone for creator-centric economies on-chain.

However, rather than a seamless rollout, it quickly turned into a battle between opportunistic bots, confused retail participants, phishing campaigns, and disputes over fairness, showing how unpredictable open token markets can be, even when tied to a well-known figure.

The token launched directly through the Base App with no presale and no team allocation, branded by Pollak as a “fair launch.”

Launch mechanics, flashblock snipers, and rapid market reversals

Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum L2, has increasingly positioned itself as a home for creator tokens, allowing figures like Pollak to issue assets tied to identity, community, and utility.

Pollak wrote, “With $JESSE, my flywheel will be complete,” referring to a self-sustaining ecosystem where creators capture value directly from fans

The token deployed from Pollak’s verified profile (jesse.base.eth) on November 21 using contract 0x5***d59. Supply totaled 1 trillion tokens, with 500 million seeded into Aerodrome and Uniswap liquidity pools.

Early trading followed rising network activity on Base, which has reported 10 million users and $2 billion in TVL. Front-running began almost instantly.

Bots leveraged Base’s new flashblocks feature, which allows high-fee priority execution within the same block, to acquire large portions of supply before retail participants could enter.

Two wallets acquired 26% of total supply, later exiting with combined profits of roughly $1.3 million, split across $700K and $600K transactions, according to Arkham Intelligence.

One trader spent $44,000 in L2 fees to flip tokens in minutes.

Trader @theneetguy summed up the sentiment: “Base is for sniping.” The predictable launch timing and public contract disclosures were referenced. The issue was also tied to Zora’s creator coin protocol, which underpins $JESSE and has drawn similar concerns.

Initial trading pushed the market cap to $25–30 million, fueled by Coinbase Wallet users and early speculation. The token was later added to Zora’s Creator Coin Index.

Momentum shifted as prices fell. @SadlifeTv_ posted, “Worst ever token launch on Base,” while @AvgJoesCrypto wrote, “Creator coins cannot break out if launches like this continue.”

The token dropped roughly 35% from peak to $17 million and down 28% in 24 hours to $0.000000000002088, aligning with a wider crypto downturn that saw Bitcoin fall below $87K and $1B in liquidations.

Scams, outages, and questions about future viability

Pollak warned of imitation tokens early, stating, “Impersonators and $JESSE fakes are guaranteed.”

However, that didn’t stop multiple counterfeit contracts appearing across Base, and a fake airdrop circulating via jessecoin.net.

Higher traffic triggered temporary disruptions across Farcaster, Zora, and the Base App, prompting comparisons to past Base token incidents including the “Base is for everyone” coin collapse.

The token continued trading on Ourbit and MEXC, where futures launched with 20x leverage and reported $72K volume. Meanwhile, market sentiment split between those viewing the launch as experimentation and those calling for structural protections to prevent bot-driven dominance.

A post read: “I ran 10 billion simulations of the $JESSE chart—they all look like this,” followed by a downward arrow.

With no presale and no allocation to insiders, the project now faces a key question: whether a creator token can sustain engagement when its earliest winners are automated wallets rather than community members.

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