Coinbase’s Base found itself under attack from crypto market participants following the debut of the Base is for everyone token.
Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base unintentionally kicked off one of the most chaotic experiments in recent Web3 memory. It started with a simple post “Base is for everyone”.
Base is for everyone. pic.twitter.com/gq3lLLuXO1
— Base (@base) April 16, 2025
What followed was an experimental token launch, market mania, backlash, and a broader conversation on the future of tokenized content.
The Spark: A Tweet, a Token, and a Frenzy
Base’s official X account dropped the phrase “Base is for everyone” followed by a post that read “just coin it”, linking to Zora, a platform that allows content to be minted as tokens.
Just coin it. https://t.co/RB6BF9wrjh
— Base (@base) April 16, 2025
That seemingly innocent link led to the creation of an ERC-20 token titled “Base is for everyone”. Although Zora posted a disclaimer clarifying it wasn’t official, the damage, or rather the excitement, was already in motion.
Within hours, the token exploded to a $17 million market cap, crashed by 94% to nearly $1 million, and then rebounded to over $23 million, all in less than 12 hours.
At the time of writing, it’s sitting around $14 million with over $33 million in trading volume, according to the data by DEXScreener.
Who Benefited?
While thousands of wallets jumped into the speculative craze, a few made out with profits.
One wallet, 0x0992, bought 256 million tokens for just 1.5 ETH (~$2,370) and sold them for 108 ETH (~$170,400), pocketing a massive $168,000 profit. The other two, 0x5D9D and 0xBD31 made profits of $266,000 and $231,800, respectively.
Another wallet, 0x5D9D, also raked in profits, while three wallets altogether made around $666,000 on the day, according to Lookonchain.
3 wallets bought a large amount of "Base is for everyone" before @base posted and sold them, making a profit of ~$666K.
0x0992 spent 1.5 $ETH($2,370) to buy 256.39M "Base is for everyone", and sold all for 108 $ETH($170.4K), making $168K.https://t.co/1QSP9LDMF8
0x5D9D spent 1… pic.twitter.com/1lrSydphxP
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 17, 2025
Unsurprisingly, this led to accusations of insider sniping, with Harrison Leggio (aka “Pop Punk”) calling it “HORRIFICALLY sniped”.
Base token on Zora was HORRIFICALLY sniped.
From a quick look, here's 2 wallets that purchased 21% of the supply for 2 ETH.
They then transferred to other wallets and sold for $300k profit.
This is what can happen if you don't have snipe protection… pic.twitter.com/FT4kNWPtoQ
— Pop Punk (@PopPunkOnChain) April 16, 2025
The Controversy
Not long after the token’s launch, critics slammed Base for what they saw as a reckless move. Pierre Rochard, former Vice President of Research of Riot Platforms, called it “terrible for the industry”.
On-chain analyst Hantao Yuan revealed that just three wallets controlled nearly 47% of the total supply, with one wallet alone holding 25.6%.
Let me get this straight
> base tweets a token on their main account
> Top 3 holders had 47% of the supply (sold a lot)
> Jesse defends it
> Posts 2 more tokens
> "This is culture"
> Rugs 2500 holders (potentially new base users) pic.twitter.com/NM4CY04eUa— Hantao (@Hantao) April 16, 2025
Volume bots also amplified the volatility, creating the kind of pump-and-dump dynamics the crypto industry has long tried to move past.
The Defense
Despite the chaos, Base and its creator Jesse Pollak stood by the experiment.
Pollak explained that putting content on-chain is the next frontier—what he calls a “new form of marketing” where ads, posters, and videos become tokenized assets, potentially bringing creators new streams of income and community engagement.
“Someone has to normalize putting all of our content onchain. I’m not afraid for it to be us,” Pollak posted.
Base is posting on Zora because we believe everyone should bring their content onchain, and use the tools that make it possible.
Memes. Moments. Culture.
If we want the future to be onchain, we have to be willing to experiment in public. That’s what we’re doing.
To be clear,…
— Base (@base) April 16, 2025
Base even received 10 million tokens as the original content creator but claimed they will not sell them — likely in an attempt to ease community concerns.
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