tl;dr
Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 network Base has acquired the development team behind Iron Fish, a privacy-focused blockchain project, to enhance privacy features within Base. The acquisition does not involve the Iron Fish blockchain or its native token, which will continue to operate independently under...
Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 network Base has acquired the development team behind Iron Fish, a privacy-focused blockchain project, to enhance privacy features within Base. The acquisition does not involve the Iron Fish blockchain or its native token, which will continue to operate independently under the Iron Fish Foundation. Key members of the Iron Fish team will join Coinbase's efforts to develop privacy-preserving primitives for Base. This move aligns with Coinbase's goal of advancing privacy features within its ecosystem. Base has faced difficulties amid market volatility despite its strong market entry over a year ago, experiencing a drop in TVL from $4 billion to $2.8 billion.
The latest move aims to boost privacy features within Base. The acquisition focuses on integrating the expertise of Iron Fish’s team and does not involve the Iron Fish blockchain or its native token, both of which will continue to operate independently under the Iron Fish Foundation.
Key members of the Iron Fish team, including CEO Elena Nadolinski and Jason Spafford, will join Coinbase’s efforts to develop “privacy-preserving primitives” for Base. Their expertise is expected to address the challenges of transaction transparency inherent in blockchain networks, as per the official announcement. Meanwhile, Nadolinski will continue her role on the Iron Fish Foundation’s board in a bid to ensure that the project’s governance structure remains intact.
Iron Fish, which is known for leveraging zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) to ensure transaction confidentiality, launched its mainnet in 2023 after over two years of development. It had secured $28 million in a 2021 funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. By integrating Iron Fish’s team, Coinbase aims to equip developers with tools to build more secure and compliant decentralized applications on Base. This initiative is in line with Coinbase’s goal of advancing privacy features within its ecosystem. Iron Fish revealed that connectivity has witnessed significant growth which is currently bridged to 27 transparent chains with the help of ChainPort.
The latest acquisition comes as Base faces difficulties amid high volatility in the broader market despite an impressive market entry over a year ago. The network previously reached a high of $4 billion in TVL in December 2024 but has since dropped to $2.8 billion, as it continued to struggle to maintain its earlier momentum.