Coinbase’s layer 2 blockchain, Base, found itself at the center of controversy after a post on its social media account was transformed into a tradeable token using Zora. What started as a seemingly light-hearted experiment quickly evolved into a volatile market event. Token Minted from a Tweet Sparks Frenzy The drama began when Base’s official X account shared a post reading “Base is for everyone,” followed by a second post linking to Zora and saying “coined it.” That post indicated the message had been minted as an ERC-20 token on the platform. Despite Zora’s disclaimer that the token wasn’t official, speculation exploded. The market cap shot up to $17 million before collapsing by roughly 94% to around $1 million, based on data from DEXScreener. Market Whiplash and Wallet Concentration Raise Eyebrows On-chain analyst Hantao Yuan highlighted that nearly half of the token’s supply was held by just three wallets. One of them alone controlled 25.6%. Yuan also noted that volume bots played a major role in the price swings. Over 2,500 wallets were affected, with many users feeling misled. In a statement issued after the chaos, the Base team described the incident as a content tokenization experiment. Although they received 10 million of the tokens, they assured the community they wouldn’t sell them. Mixed Reactions Across the Crypto Space While some users expressed confusion and frustration, others mocked the situation. Alon, co-founder of Pump.fun, weighed in by saying this kind of tokenization might become standard practice in the future, but for now, it shows a disconnect with today’s expectations. He added, “Tokenizing everything is a great idea, but with that power comes responsibility.” Value Rebounds but Concerns Remain In a surprising twist, the token rebounded strongly after its initial drop, reaching a valuation of approximately $23 million before settling around $18 million. Trading volume exceeded $30 million in just 12 hours. Zora’s data shows the creator earnings for Base reached about $70,000. Despite the backlash, Base’s creator Jesse Pollak doubled down on promoting on-chain content. He called on brands to embrace tokenization through platforms like Zora. Pollak framed it as a “new form of marketing” offering greater engagement and monetization potential. This comes on the heels of Coinbase reviving its plans to tokenize its $COIN stock, aiming to bring blockchain-based securities into the U.S. financial landscape.
