Will Zora Turn Ethereum L2 Base into a Solana Killer?

A viral craze sparked by Zora propelled Base to surpass Pump.fun and LetsBonk, but Solana maintains its lead in terms of users, transaction volume, and overall activity. Base is challenging Solana's dominance in token issuance. The recent surge in SocialFi has propelled the Ethereum layer-2 network to the top of the industry rankings. For the past few years, Solana has been the preferred public chain for new tokens. Its low fees and high throughput have attracted traders away from Ethereum. It has become a hub for memecoins, with issuance platforms like Pump.fun generating tens of thousands of tokens daily. The excitement surrounding Coinbase's Base, on the other hand, stems from a different kind of token economy: one centered around social media posts, virality, and a new generation of creator tools. Coinbase recently rebranded its wallet, launching the Base app, which has driven a surge in SocialFi activity on apps like Zora. According to Nansen data, the weight of token issuance has shifted toward Base in recent weeks, but Solana still leads in key activity metrics. While Zora is bringing some of the crypto world's biggest names onto Base, critics question whether these thousands of new tokens will truly have monetary value or will fade as quickly as other blockchain trends. Zora is rapidly gaining popularity, but Solana still has more activity than Base. Source: Nansen

Base App's rebranding ignites a new wave of SocialFi on Ethereum L2

On July 16, Coinbase rebranded its wallet to Base App, turning it into a hub for creators where users can post, mint, and trade those posts, all through integrations with social tools like Zora and Farcaster.

The move had an immediate impact. On July 16, 7,557 new tokens were minted on Base. The next day, that number nearly tripled to 22,098. Following the Coinbase app rebrand, Base token issuance surged. Source: Dune Analytics. On July 17, Zora surpassed Pump.fun in token issuance, catapulting it to second place. At the time, Solana's issuance platform, LetsBonk, was eroding Pump.fun's market share. On July 23, Zora surpassed LetsBonk to take the top spot. The next day, Zora’s token issuance reached 38,254, surpassing the combined total of 29,012 for rival memecoin platforms on Solana. While LetsBonk and Pump.fun chased each other, Zora emerged as the leader in token issuance. Source: Dune Analytics However, not everyone is convinced that the tens of thousands of Zora tokens are valuable. “Most users are unknowingly entering a market with a common flaw: there’s often simply no liquidity to sell these tokens, leaving both creators and fans stranded with worthless tokens,” Glider co-founder Brian Huang told Cointelegraph. [Unrelated content follows:] Cryptocurrency founder Jesse Pollak argues that the Zora token is different from the Pump.fun memecoin, a claim that has been disputed by cryptocurrency founders. Source: Yakovenko/Egorov

Meanwhile, Alexander Cutler, CEO of Aerodrome, a decentralized exchange built on Base, publicly defended Zora. He believes that a large number of heavy Instagram users are attracted to Zora because they are rewarded for their daily actions.

"I've brought in more 'newbies' than any other crypto project in history, and they're having a blast. Speculators are just creating the market," Cutler said at X.

Solana Remains Leading Even with the Surge in Ethereum's L2 Base

As with other social media platforms, posting on Zora doesn't guarantee an audience. Building an audience requires time, dedication, and consistency. Just because a post is tokenized doesn't mean it has liquidity or value. “Counting the number of tokens issued is a meaningless metric. What really matters is the overall value of these tokens,” Huang said. "You can imagine that in a world where social media content is generally considered free, 99.99% of content tokens are also worthless." Critics often criticize the value of the Zora token, but the Solana token has also experienced a similar decline. As Cointelegraph previously reported, nearly 99% of tokens issued on Pump.fun failed to gain sufficient traction and liquidity, ultimately becoming worthless. In rare cases, Solana's memecoins have become tradable and even soared to multi-million dollar market capitalizations. Celebrity endorsements and support from politicians have helped some memecoins gain traction, though many of these projects are plagued by accusations of scams. Solana remains a distant leader in broader activity metrics. Its ecosystem benefits from mature liquidity pools, established decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and a developer community accustomed to rapid iteration. Solana leads in cryptocurrency industry activity, but Ethereum and Tron saw the highest transaction fees over the past week. Source: Nansen While Base’s throughput generally lags behind Solana’s, it demonstrated competitive potential with a peak TPS of 959 during a high-intensity token launch. Meanwhile, Solana is introducing Firedancer (currently running on approximately 10% of validators via the "Frankendancer" hybrid client) to improve performance and throughput. Internal testing has shown it to reach up to 1 million TPS. Solana remains far ahead of Base in efficiency. Source: Chainspect

Even “Solana people” are talking about Base’s Zora

Base’s surge in token issuance, fueled by SocialFi, demonstrates how quickly on-chain momentum can shift, especially when a platform finds cultural traction. Zora offers Base a unique niche based on content creation. For now, at least, this novelty is driving user engagement. Zora is one of the brightest new stars in the cryptocurrency space this summer. Source: Coingecko. But its underlying economy remains young and fragile. Most new tokens on Zora have little liquidity, repeating the path of the Solana memecoin boom. "Why not just let fans tip creators directly? That seems like a more straightforward and easily understood solution. Instead, we're seeing a complex and convoluted process that looks more like piling up vanity metrics on Base than creating long-term value," Huang said. Despite the criticism, Zora has attracted the curiosity of prominent figures in the crypto community. One of them is Zion Thomas (known as Ansem), a prominent influencer and investor in the meme coin space, nicknamed "Solana Guy." Zora is beginning to attract some of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency space. Source: Vitalik Buterin/Ansem Solana's advantages extend beyond speed and low costs. Years of ecosystem development have resulted in mature liquidity pools and comprehensive DeFi protocols. This depth makes it more difficult for newcomers to disrupt it, even if competitors occasionally show impressive activity. Even if Base can replicate its current explosive growth, matching Solana's ecosystem depth will require more than just social-driven tokenization. The true test lies in whether it can transform its viral moment into a sustainable ecosystem with real liquidity, user retention, and long-term adoption. If it can't, the current craze will likely become just another short-lived chapter, like countless other on-chain trends in the crypto world. Zora has been compared to Friend.tech, the once-popular social media platform based on Base. Source: Roofies/Ansem