Base’s promotion of creator coins, largely through its close alignment with NFT marketplace Zora, is drawing growing criticism from community members who say the strategy is alienating the projects that helped fuel the network’s initial momentum.
In recent months, Base has become the epicenter of “creator coins,” which are tokens tied to individual creators, posts, or pieces of content, with Zora positioned at the center of that narrative.
Supporters argue that the model represents a new source of on-chain revenue for creators and a cultural on-ramp into cryptocurrencies. Onchain data also reflects strong activity, with daily token minting on Base surpassing Solana in August of this year.
But frustration is growing among the Base community at X. Builders say Base is pushing a narrow, favored ecosystem while sidelining other native Base projects with established communities and track records.
Jacek, who runs the degen token ecosystem at Base, expressed his frustration on X with a post that echoed a negative shift in sentiment.
Jacek argued that Base’s marketing and social support have become increasingly selective, favoring initiatives linked to Zora and ignoring projects that previously generated significant growth and liquidity for the chain.
“I’m really disappointed by @base’s forced push around creator coins,” he wrote. “We still can’t even get the official Base
Jacek added that when degen joined Solana, they received immediate support from the official Solana X account and from Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius.
The reaction highlights a broader tension Base faces as it struggles to close the gap between scaling adoption while maintaining positive sentiment with those creating apps or tokens on Base.
In the short term, Base is doing perfectly fine, as it continues to average more than 10 million transactions per day, according to Basescan, but declining sentiment could lead to an exodus to other chains like Solana or Sui.
Whether or not Base adapts to the changing sentiment remains to be seen, but rival blockchains will be waiting in the wings to capitalize if the overall mood among Base builders continues to plummet.
