Rewiring The Onchain Future: The Base Batches #001 Recap

Cyril Reynolds -

What do you get when you bring together thousands of builders across the globe, a vibrant ecosystem of mentors and partners, a playful AI alter-ego of Jesse Pollak, and a demo day with $1M on the line? You get Base Batches 2025.

Let’s take a look back at how builders from six continents showed up, built fast, and built for impact.

Enter the Batches 🌀

The Base Batches Global Buildathon kicked off on 25th April 2025 as a bold experiment in decentralized acceleration.

Each builder joined one of six regional Batches: India, Africa, Southeast Asia, LatAm, Europe, and North America. The goal? To build the next onchain killer app using tools from Base and their incredible partner ecosystem.

Thousands joined in to push the envelope of of what’s possible onchain. To signal commitment. To build the next big thing.

The result? More than 1200 projects from close to 3000 builders across the globe.

Not a One-Off Hackathon, It’s a Full-On Builder Journey 🗺️

Here’s how it played out:

  1. Stage 1: Buildathon → Join a global wave of builders and ship your best onchain idea
  2. Stage 2: Incubase → Get selected as a track or regional winner and placed into a post-buildathon incubator, courtesy of Hashed Emergent (Africa, APAC and India regions) and Odisea (Europe, North America and LatAm regions)
  3. Stage 3: Demo Day → Pitch your project to top names from Base, Coinbase, and beyond for a shot at up to $1M in funding

During the buildathon, builders also got:

  • The opportunity to forge connections with some of the most prolific Base builders in your region, with direct access to the Base team.
  • The chance to attend any workshop amongst the 50+ hosted across the world, including official workshops on tech like Minikit and Smart Wallet.
  • A chance at online glory by getting featured on Base and Devfolio’s X and Farcaster accounts.

JesseGPT: AI Co-founder, Judging Critic, and Meme Lord 🤖

While Base Batches was underway, we felt the FOMO and built something ourselves!

We built JesseGPT, a fine-tuned AI inspired by Jesse Pollak himself.

Builders could pitch their ideas to JesseGPT and receive a rating, advice, or even a roast. If you convinced JesseGPT in critical mode, you could mint your pitch as an ‘ideacoin’.

Some builders used JesseGPT to brainstorm; others went head-to-head for some of the funniest and sharpest interactions you could have with an AI chatbot.

JesseGPT was a judge, mentor, vibe-checker, and a surprisingly philosophical chatbot. RIP to everyone who asked it to "build a Superchain DAO with vibes."

Tracks and Vibes 🎯

This edition of Base Batches featured dedicated tracks supported by ecosystem leaders:

  • AI
  • Stablecoins
  • Mini-apps
  • Consumer
  • Showcase
  • DeFi
  • Vibe Coding

Every track had a 1 ETH top prize, with winners going on to receive mentorship, visibility on Base channels, and an invite to Demo Day, where projects can secure up to $1M in funding.

Gather Around: Mentorship & Office Hours 🛠️

Through mid-hackathon check-ins, builders unlocked priority access to mentorship, leading to intimate group sessions on Gather. Each region had dedicated mentors from the Base DevRel team, track sponsors, and leading devs.

No fluff. Just five minutes of high-intensity feedback per team, back-to-back. Builders got to troubleshoot blockers, refine their scope, and gain insight into what makes a submission demo-day worthy.

Projects, Submissions, and Global Energy 🌍

Builders had three weeks to ideate, build, test, and ship. We saw:

  • Hundreds of projects submitted across regions
  • Infra to social apps, DeFi to AI agents
  • Memecoins and mission-driven tools sitting side-by-side

The Devfolio dashboard was buzzing with activity, and the Discord was chaos - in the best possible way.

Even after the deadline, builders continued refining, sharing, and helping each other debug.

🏁 And Now, The Victors

Hundreds of projects. Dozens of ideas worth backing. After weeks of building across the globe, we’ve got our winners — and let’s just say, the bar for onchain innovation has been raised.

Here’s a region-by-region breakdown of the most based builds from Base Batches #001:

🌍 Base Batch Africa

Winners: Neda Pay, KiSMATI, SandWorm, rovify, MicroGigs, Ataeru, and FVP.

Runner Ups: QRBase, Afriramp, LENDBIT Finance, SolarShare, BaseIndexer, and Spotlite.

🌏 Base Batch APAC

Winners: Suite, MintMeACoffee.Com, Crew, SuperVol, Base Freelance, Tumbuh, and YOLO Protocol Hook.

Runner Ups: DynaVest, OnChainFund, Mint Club, PomoWizard, Rivalidate, and ShonClub.

🇪🇺 Base Batch Europe

Winners: Checkout by LINK, Drawcast, hackagent, Subunit, SecServ, Personal Finance Dashboard, and Alphix.

Runner Ups: Cat Town, Songcast, flappy-frog, and Block Control.

🇮🇳 Base Batch India

Winners: Hook-Tuah, Clip, Not Your Type, replyguy, JesseGPT, Creatorbase, and NOICE.

Runner Ups: Kuri, BitMore, cognitosign, Lotry, Darkest Dungeon, and AuditHook.

🌎 Base Batch LatAm

Winners: RapiMoni, JesseXBT, Crypto Regulation Entity, Tuneport, Vaquita, Leprechaun, and AI ART3 HUB (sin fricción).

Runner Ups: MiTanda, Vcop Collateral system hook, CampusCoin, and Shine.

🇺🇸 Base Batch North America

Winners: ferfie., Paperview, Gig.bot, MameCoin, X-Alpha, TrendSage, and Mantua Protocol.

Runner Ups: Superfan One, VMF Coin, Scratch, and Nounspace.

What’s next? 🚀

The Base Batches journey doesn’t end here.

We’re launching the Messaging Buildathon in collaboration with Coinbase Developer Platforms, challenging builders to create programmable wallets and onchain agents that redefine how we communicate.

It’ll culminate in a live Demo Day at the AWS Loft in NYC, giving winners the spotlight they deserve.

More info and registration: https://base-batch-messaging.devfolio.co

One Chain. Infinite Builders. 🛠️

Base Batches proved that with the right infrastructure, incentives, and a global community, builders will show up.

And they’ll build things that surprise you.

Whether it was meme-powered mini-apps or stablecoin tools for underbanked regions, this year’s builders showed what onchain can really mean.

And we’re just getting started.

Stay tuned for more updates and interact with the Devfolio community at:

🐦 Twitter                 🦄 Farcaster                   🎮 Discord                  📞 Telegram

Until then, Never Stop Building 🛠️