Base activated its Cobalt upgrade on Wednesday, introducing conditional transactions and enhanced issuer controls for tokenized assets on the Ethereum layer-2 network. The third major upgrade expands the B20 token standard, enabling issuers to apply multiple compliance checks to a single asset. For instance, an issuer could require recipients to pass identity verification, confirm accredited investor status and avoid sanctioned lists. Issuers may also schedule adjustments for corporate events like stock splits, modifying share counts in wallets and applications without minting or burning tokens. The update permits authorized administrators to transfer tokens from a holder’s wallet without the holder’s consent and to attach public notes to transfers. Base clarified that issuers determine which features to enable and who may access them, with the network itself unable to initiate such actions. These additions provide the compliance and administrative infrastructure necessary for integrating traditional financial products onto the blockchain. Cobalt also incorporates Validity Transactions, allowing users to submit transactions that become eligible only when predefined onchain conditions are satisfied, such as an asset reaching a target price before a block deadline. Submitted transactions remain private until inclusion in a block. The upgrade follows Base’s recent focus on tokenized finance, including the July 8 activation of B20 as a native standard for stablecoins and real-world assets. On July 16, Base creator Jesse Pollak acknowledged a prior strategic misstep in prioritizing creator and messaging applications over financial use cases, citing lagging development in prediction markets and perpetual futures. Coinbase launched tokenized US equities on Base on August 25, issuing B20 tokens representing shares in Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet. Base plans to reduce block times from two seconds to 200 milliseconds, implement protocol-level support for sponsored transaction fees and bundled transactions, and adopt technical changes from Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade in the coming months.