The team behind the Base L2 network, developed by the Coinbase exchange, has opened recruitment for the fourth cohort of the Base Batches accelerator. The program will select ten startups, each of which will receive a $100,000 investment from the Base Ecosystem Fund. The main focus of the new cohort will be artificial intelligence, payments, trading, financing, and asset issuance. Applications are accepted until September 9. The eight‑week program will be held online from September 21 to November 15, after which, on November 17, the teams will present their projects to potential investors at Demo Day in New York..

This time, Base is deliberately reducing the number of participants. The previous, third cohort in spring 2026 included twelve teams, whereas the new intake plans to select only ten startups. Base explains this by the desire to work with fewer teams but to give each one more attention. Daniel Brongaim, head of the Base Ecosystem Fund, stated that better results are achieved through more in‑depth work with a smaller and more focused group of exceptional developers. According to him, the team is moving away from a broad set of projects and focusing on those with the greatest potential, providing them with practical support and deeper integration with the ecosystem. The official program is aimed at teams in the pre‑seed round, with Base expected to be their primary blockchain.

Base places particular emphasis on AI agents that can independently interact with financial services, make payments, and perform on‑chain operations. Daniel Brongaim noted that blockchains are natural financial systems for artificial intelligence, and agents will soon carry out far more on‑chain activity than humans. Base believes that this will be facilitated by the development of stablecoins and programmable payments in real time. This direction aligns with the network’s strategy for 2026. Previously, Base founder Jesse Pollak identified infrastructure for AI agents as one of the three key areas of development. In May, the network also launched Base MCP – a tool that connects Base Account to AI agents and allows the user to manage funds and tokens via chat, and also activated the first Azul update on the mainnet.