Coinbase faced backlash after its blockchain network, Base, promoted a memecoin on social media, leading to a significant drop in value.
On April 16, Base shared a post on X featuring the slogan “Base is for everyone” and linked it to a corresponding token on Zora, a platform for trading digital assets. The token initially surged to a market cap of $17.1 million within 75 minutes of its launch but collapsed by nearly 90%, dropping to $1.9 million in just 20 minutes.
Despite this distancing, Base is recorded to have received 10 million tokens from the billion-token supply — tokens it vowed not to sell — and over $61,000 in earnings from trading activity, which it claims will go towards grants for developers. The token has already seen more than $26 million in trading volume.
Reactions across the crypto community were swift and scathing. Critics argued the token’s structure misled traders and damaged the network’s credibility. Former Riot Platforms researcher Pierre Rochard called it “terrible for the industry.” At the same time, AP Collective’s founder, Abhishek Pawa, slammed Base for “completely botching the execution” of what he admitted was a potentially innovative concept.
Despite the criticism, Jesse Pollack, the creator of Base, defended the move. Pollack has published numerous tokens on Zora recently and argued that tokenizing content is key to a future creator economy.
The incident didn’t end there. Just over an hour after the controversial token launch, Base posted again on Zora to promote its upcoming appearance at FarCon 2025 in New York. That post also spawned a related token, which peaked at $987,570 before swiftly diving nearly 77% to settle around $230,000, according to DexScreener data.
Meanwhile, Coinbase is raising a red flag over the state of the crypto market, warning that conditions may be slipping into bear territory. However, it remains cautiously hopeful that a turnaround could begin between May and June, potentially setting the stage for a more bullish third quarter.
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