Bankless: Can Base challenge Solana's dominance in the meme coin space?

Original Title: 《Can Base Challenge Solana's Memecoin Dominance？》

Author: David C

Compiled by: Kate, Mars Finance
Solana dominates the Memecoin space… for now.

So far, Solana's resurgence has been the story of this cycle, with the network rising on the back of technological advancements, lucrative airdrops, and most notably, the support of Memecoins.

Memecoins have transformed from a frivolous, fleeting asset class into a forward-looking alternative to low liquidity, high FDV tokens that lack sufficient retail upside.

Today, most Memecoin activity occurs on Solana, although activity is continuing to migrate to ETH L2s like Arbitrum and Base. Base has been particularly lively recently. While the Coinbase-incubated L2 does have the potential to become a Memecoin hub, Solana's activity continues to dominate and remain within its ecosystem. Can Base compete with Solana on the Memecoin stage?

In this article, we will examine the current state of these platforms, their capital flows, and key projects to assess why Solana has become the capital of Memecoins and how Base compares to it.

Solana Memecoin Scene

A key factor in Solana becoming the darling of this cycle is its Memecoin activity.

Fueled by an influx of internal funds from airdrops like Jito, Jupiter, Kamino, Parcl, and Tensor, the market cap of Memecoins reached $1 billion in just one week, an astonishing achievement and an excellent marketing campaign, with the current TVL of the chain exceeding $4.8 billion.

The narrative momentum of Solana is largely attributed to the Memecoin craze, which is evident in the activity on the popular Memecoin launcher pump.fun, where on certain days, it accounted for 83% of all issued tokens, even surpassing Solana in 24-hour revenue. However, this success would not have been possible without such a strong Memecoin arena, featuring major tokens like WIF, BONK, and BODEN.

• Dogwifhat (Ticker: WIF; Market Cap: $3.3 billion) is a cute Shiba Inu wearing a beanie, which became the mascot of Solana due to its memorability, widespread promotion by Crypto Twitter celebrities, and the loyalty generated from your token's rise from a $10,000 market cap to billions.

• Jeo Boden (Ticker: Boden; Market Cap: $194 million), featuring U.S. President Joe Biden, sparked a political storm and also called Solana home. In its first week, it delivered 1000x returns, a performance undoubtedly tied to the SOL Memecoin scene.

• Bonk (Ticker: Bonk; Market Cap: $2.65 billion) is Solana's OG Memecoin. This Shiba Inu from December 2022 saw an incredible price surge last fall and kicked off the Memecoin craze on the chain.

Overall, Solana not only boasts the most famous Memecoins of this cycle but also a range of themed tokens, from dogs and cats to politicians.

Base Memecoin Scene

Base has rapidly risen to become one of Ethereum's top L2s, with its Memecoin ecosystem helping it gain a consumer-friendly reputation.

Projects like DEGEN and friend.tech have brought sustained activity to the network and established a culture of Base as a social hub. That said, while the network saw an epic rebound in TVL in March, it seems to have stagnated in recent weeks. Although Base's TVL is far behind Solana's, its daily trading volume is impressive. Last week, the network's single-day trading volume reached a record $854 million.

Blue is TVL, Green is Trading Volume

While the BALD rug of 2023 may have left an initial sour taste for Memecoin gamblers, the ecosystem has developed more momentum in the recent Memecoin cycle, although it remains the Wild West.

• Brett (Ticker: BRETT; Market Cap: $440 million) is a token inspired by a character from Matt Furie's comic "Boy's Club." While the niche may be good, it could also limit the audience, thereby reducing demand for the token.

• Toshi the Cat (Ticker: TOSHI; Market Cap: $146 million), named after Brian Armstrong's cat and Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is Base's leading pet-inspired Memecoin.

https://x.com/BasedBrett/status/1785151748358979891

Traders express loyalty to the chain that helps them accumulate wealth. While SOL traders can purchase tokens for a fraction of their current market cap, Base still lacks a native token due to regulatory scrutiny; if/when it does, it can be assumed that retail traders will have relatively limited upside. Unlike the Solana community, Base has had very few milestone ecosystem airdrops.

While Base has a unique Memecoin community, they lack broader appeal compared to other ecosystems like Solana; instead, they cater more to the needs of crypto-native users. This uniqueness sets Base apart, but the narrow thematic range may limit its success as a primary Memecoin hub.

While Base has been able to leverage its cheaper and faster transactions to establish early Memes, the most powerful Memecoin communities on Ethereum still primarily exist on the mainnet. Solana has momentum and a more pronounced narrative in this cycle, and while Base remains one of the more active L2 ecosystems, it has much ground to cover in the Memecoin space.

Conclusion

When it comes to Memecoins, Solana and Base exist on different levels.

Solana has solidified its position through a diverse and thriving Memecoin ecosystem supported by numerous airdrops and strong community backing. In contrast, while Base's growth is impressive and backed by Coinbase, it has yet to achieve the same level of mainstream appeal and capital generation required for the degen environment that Memecoins demand.

Solana's continued growth, evident from its TVL increase and daily trading volume, highlights its central stage in this cycle. As the Memecoin space evolves, it will be interesting to see if Base can cultivate an outstanding Memecoin that allows it to stand out both within and outside the Ethereum ecosystem.