On April 16, Base published a post on the on-chain social app Zora with the phrase “Base is for everyone.” Minutes later, the official Base X account echoed the post, linking directly to the token minted through Zora’s platform. That alone sent the token skyrocketing - but the joyride didn’t last long.
The price dropped precipitously from $0.0091 to just $0.00308 within the hour, wiping out over $15 million in market value.
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain soon flagged a suspicious pattern: three wallets had accumulated large positions in the token just before the post went live and exited shortly after the surge, netting more than $666,000 in combined profits. One wallet, 0x5D9D, turned $1,577 into $267,000, and another, 0xBD31, earned $231,800. These findings sparked accusations of insider access and raised serious questions about fairness and transparency.
Pseudonymous blockchain investigator Dethective summed up the criticism sharply: “Base is for everyone - especially if you’re an insider and can profit 200k.”
In the aftermath of the token crash and backlash, Base issued a clarification: the token was not an official launch nor a product of Coinbase or the Base core team. Instead, it was positioned as a “content coin” - an experimental effort to explore how social posts, culture, and digital moments can be tokenized on-chain.
Jesse Pollak, Head of Protocol at Coinbase and a leading figure behind Base, defended the concept on X. He argued that content coins should not be measured by price but by cultural engagement. “Content coins are not built on speculation. They’re built on meaning. You’re not buying into a project - you’re collecting a moment, a vibe, a piece of culture,” echoed Base contributor Nkechi.
Pollak emphasized that Base would never sell these tokens or treat them as financial instruments. Rather, the goal is to foster decentralized digital expression by giving value to moments shared online. This aligns with Zora’s broader mission of turning user-generated content - like memes, posts, and art - into tradable, verifiable on-chain assets.
While some in the Ethereum and NFT communities see promise in the idea of “content coins,” others argue that Base’s approach was reckless. Critics say the platform failed to set clear expectations, especially given Coinbase’s influence and reach. Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen noted that social capital in crypto comes with responsibility: “If you launch a coin and have social influence, that comes with responsibility.”
Skeptics also question whether Base truly intended the experiment to be open and inclusive, given the timing of large trades ahead of the announcement. The situation has reignited conversations around transparency, ethical leadership in Web3, and the blurry line between creative experiments and speculative traps.
Despite the drama, the token’s recovery suggests there’s still strong speculative interest - and perhaps curiosity - around tokenized content. The “Base Is for Everyone” token remains volatile but continues to attract attention on-chain, with $74,000 already earned by the original creator through trading and creator rewards on Zora.
Whether content coins become a legitimate new asset class or simply the next iteration of memecoins remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: as crypto projects blend culture, community, and capital, the pressure to act with transparency and responsibility has never been higher.