On February 10, 2025, Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs, criticized Base for transferring sequencer fees to Coinbase instead of keeping them on-chain, arguing this contradicted Ethereum’s decentralization principles

Quotes that support claims

Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs (a blockchain competitor to Base), questioned how Base as a Layer 2 could be considered 'Ethereum aligned' when the fees generated were not kept on-chain for the benefit of the network or its users

Andre Cronje criticized Layer 2 models, arguing that networks with centralized sequencers generate significant fees while contributing only a small fraction to Ethereum’s security and data availability.