The base is testing Solana’s dominance in launching tokens, and a recent burst of SocialFi activity has pushed the Ethereum Layer-2 network to the top of the industry leaderboards.
In recent years, Solana has been a reliable chain of new tokens. Its low prices and high throughput are driving traders apart from Ethereum. It becomes a hub for memokine, and launchpads like Pump.fun give birth to tens of thousands of tokens every day.
The surge in Coinbase’s bases comes from a different kind of token economy, built on social media posts, viral moments, and a new wave of creator tools. Coinbase recently rebranded its wallet and introduced the base app, causing a surge in SocialFi activity in applications like Zora.
Nansen data shows that token launches have leaned towards bases in recent weeks, but Solana still leads major activity metrics. And even if Zora is based on Crypto’s biggest name, critics are questioning whether thousands of new tokens have financial value or whether they will disappear as just another blockchain trend.
Branding of Base App will trigger the new Ethereum L2 SocialFi Wave
Coinbase’s July 16 brand to base app will turn wallets into a hub of creators, allowing users to post, mint and trade posts through integration of social tools such as Zora and Farcaster.
The impact was immediate. On July 16th, Base recorded the release of 7,557 new tokens. The next day, the number tripled to about 22,098.
On July 17th, Zora Beat Pump.fun came in second in the industry as Solana Launchpad Letsbonk was snatching into Pump.fun’s market advantage. Zora then overtook Let’s Bonk on July 23 to win the top spot. The next day, the launch of Zola’s 38,254 tokens exceeded Solana’s rival memo coin platform total, which recorded 29,012 tokens.
However, not everyone is convinced that thousands of New Zola tokens hold all their value. “Most users unconsciously entered the market. There is a flaw that is often overlooked. There is no liquidity to sell tokens. It locks both creators and fans into worthless tokens.”
Aerodrome CEO Alexander Cutler – a decentralized exchange of bases – has publicly defended Zora. He claimed that heavy Instagram users are attracted to Zora as they are rewarded for their normal activities.
“I have more Normies than anything from Crypto, and they enjoy it. Speculators are just making a market,” Cutler said in X.
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Solana still outperforms base despite the surge in Ethereum L2
Just like with other social media platforms, posting on Zora doesn’t guarantee your audience. Growing the followers takes time, dedication and consistency. Just because a user’s post is tokenized doesn’t mean it’s liquidity or value.
“Counting the number of tokens created is a worthless metric. What matters is the total value of these tokens,” says Huang.
“As you can imagine, in a world where social media is generally considered free, 99.99% of these content tokens are equally unworthy.”
The value of the Zora Tokens was a popular punch bag for critics, but the Solana Tokens have gone on a similar path. As previously reported by CointeLegraph, Pump.Fun cannot obtain adequate attention and liquidity. They are also worthless in the end.
In rare cases, Solana Memecoins become tradeable and even surges in market capitalization to millions. Celebrity support and support by political leaders also helped me to break out, but many of them are plagued by allegations of fraud.
Related: Fake Trump and Melania Tokens Record $4.8 million inflows in 24 hours
Solana is ahead of the line with almost all the wider activity metrics. Its ecosystem benefits from established liquidity pools, mature distributed financial (DEFI) protocols, and a developer community accustomed to shipping at speed.
The base throughput usually does not match that of Solana, but it demonstrated the potential for competition by peaking at 959 transactions per 959 seconds (TPS) during the firing of large amounts of tokens. However, Solana is currently in the process of recruiting firers through the validator’s Hybrid Frankender, increasing performance and throughput, with internal testing already demonstrating up to 1 million TPS.
Even “Soranagai” talks about the recent bass Zora
Base’s SocialFi-Fueled Token firing surges show how fast Onchain Momentum can shift, especially when the platform finds a cultural hook. Zola gave it a clear niche that was rooted in content creation. For now, its novelty is driving user engagement.
However, fundamental economics remains young and vulnerable. Most of Zora’s new tokens have little or no liquidity, reflecting the same pattern that defined Solana’s Memecoin Boom.
“Why don’t fans have creators directly chipped? It seems like a much easier and understood solution. Instead, there’s this complicated process. It seems like a way to improve vanity metrics on a base without creating long-term value,” Huang said.
Despite critics, Zora continues to overturn the curiosity of Crypto’s most famous names. One of them is Zion Thomas (known as Ansem), a key influencer and investor in the Memecoin space, even given the nickname “Solana Guy.”
The edge of Solana comes from more than speed and low cost. The long-standing ecosystem construction has given a mature liquidity pool and the Defi protocol is being developed. That depth makes it difficult for newcomers to displace, even when posting headline-grabbing spikes on their activities.
Even if the base is capable of replicating the current growth burst, it requires more than a socially driven tokenization to match the depth of Solana’s activity. The actual test is whether viral moments can be transformed into a sustainable ecosystem with true fluidity, sticky users and applications that pay attention to once novelty fades. Without it, the current surge risks diminishing as another short-lived chapter of Crypto’s Onchain Fads constant termination.
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