Is Zora turning Ethereum L2 Base into a Solana killer?

1 week ago

Base is investigating Solana’s dominance successful token launches, with a caller burst of SocialFi enactment pushing the Ethereum layer-2 web to the apical of the industry’s leaderboard.

In caller years, Solana has been the go-to concatenation for caller tokens. Its debased fees and precocious throughput are drafting traders distant from Ethereum. It’s go a hub for memecoins, with launchpads similar Pump.fun spawning tens of thousands of tokens daily.

The surge connected Coinbase’s Base is coming from a antithetic benignant of token economy, built connected societal media posts, viral moments and a caller question of creator tools. Coinbase precocious introduced the Base App by rebranding its wallet, sparking a surge successful SocialFi enactment connected applications similar Zora.

Token launches person tilted to Base successful caller weeks, but Solana inactive leads successful cardinal enactment metrics, according to Nansen data. And adjacent arsenic Zora is onboarding crypto’s biggest names to Base, critics question whether the thousands of caller tokens person monetary worth oregon if they’ll slice distant arsenic conscionable different blockchain fad.

Coinbase, Base, Solana, Layer2, Memecoin, SocialFi, Features, Nansen

Base App’s rebrand sparks caller Ethereum L2 SocialFi wave

Coinbase’s July 16 rebrand to the Base App turned its wallet into a creators’ hub wherever users tin post, mint and commercialized their posts done the integration of societal tools similar Zora and Farcaster.

The interaction was immediate. On July 16, Base recorded 7,557 caller token launches. The adjacent day, that fig astir tripled to 22,098.

On July 17, Zora bushed Pump.fun successful token launches to spot 2nd successful the industry, astatine a clip erstwhile Solana launchpad LetsBonk was eating into Pump.fun’s marketplace dominance. Zora past overtook LetsBonk to assertion the apical spot connected July 23. The adjacent day, Zora’s 38,254 token launches surpassed the combined full of Solana’s rival memecoin platforms, which recorded 29,012 tokens.

But not everyone is convinced that the thousands of caller Zora tokens clasp immoderate value. “Most users person unknowingly entered into a marketplace with an often overlooked flaw: There’s usually nary liquidity to ever merchantability the token, trapping some creators and their fans successful a worthless token,” Brian Huang, co-founder of Glider, told Cointelegraph.

Alexander Cutler, CEO of Aerodrome — a decentralized speech connected Base — publically defended Zora. He argued that dense Instagram users are drawn to Zora, arsenic they get rewarded for their accustomed activities.

“I’ve onboarded much normies to it than thing successful crypto and they’re enjoying it. The speculators are conscionable making the markets,” Cutler said connected X.

Solana inactive outpaces Base contempt the Ethereum L2’s surge

Like different societal media platforms, simply posting connected Zora doesn’t warrant an audience. It takes time, dedication and consistency to turn a following. Just due to the fact that a user’s station is tokenized doesn’t mean it has liquidity oregon value.

“Counting the fig of tokens created is simply a worthless metric. It’s the worth of these tokens successful aggregate that’s important,” Huang said.

“As you tin imagine, successful a satellite wherever societal media is mostly considered free, 99.99% of these contented tokens volition beryllium likewise worthless.”

Zora tokens’ worth has been a fashionable punching container for critics, but Solana tokens person followed a akin path. As Cointelegraph antecedently reported, astir 99% of tokens launched connected Pump.fun don’t summation capable attraction and liquidity. They, too, are yet worthless.

On uncommon occasions, Solana memecoins go tradable and adjacent surge to millions successful marketplace capitalization. Celebrity endorsements and backing by governmental leaders person besides helped memecoins interruption out, though a batch of them person been plagued with scam allegations.

Solana remains up by astir each broader enactment metric. Its ecosystem benefits from established liquidity pools, mature decentralized concern (DeFi) protocols and a developer assemblage accustomed to shipping astatine speed.

While Base’s throughput typically falls abbreviated of Solana’s, it did show its competitory imaginable by reaching a highest of 959 transactions per 2nd (TPS) during a high-volume token launch. But Solana is successful the process of adopting Firedancer — presently via the hybrid Frankendancer connected astir 10% of validators — to boost show and throughput, with interior tests already demonstrating up to 1 cardinal TPS.

Even the “Solana guy” is talking astir Base’s Zora nowadays

Base’s SocialFi-fueled token motorboat surge shows however rapidly onchain momentum tin shift, particularly erstwhile a level finds a taste hook. Zora has fixed Base a chiseled niche rooted successful contented creation. For now, that novelty is driving idiosyncratic engagement.

But the underlying economics stay young and fragile. Most of the caller tokens connected Zora person small to nary liquidity, echoing the aforesaid signifier that has defined Solana’s memecoin boom.

“Why not conscionable fto fans extremity creators directly? Seems similar a overmuch much straightforward and well-understood solution. Instead, we person this convoluted process, which seems similar a mode to boost vanity metrics connected Base without creating semipermanent value,” said Huang.

Despite the critics, Zora continues to pique the curiosity of crypto’s astir well-known names. One of them is Zion Thomas (better known arsenic Ansem), a cardinal influencer and capitalist successful the memecoin space, who was adjacent fixed the nickname “Solana guy.”

Solana’s borderline comes from much than velocity and debased costs. Years of ecosystem gathering person fixed it mature liquidity pools and developed DeFi protocols. That extent makes it harder for newcomers to displace, adjacent erstwhile they station headline-grabbing spikes successful activity.

Even if Base tin replicate its existent maturation bursts, matching Solana’s extent of enactment volition necessitate much than social-driven tokenization. The existent trial volition beryllium whether it tin crook viral moments into sustained ecosystems with existent liquidity, sticky users and applications that clasp attraction aft the novelty fades. Without that, the existent surge risks going down arsenic different short-lived section successful crypto’s changeless churn of onchain fads.