Base co-founders discuss issuing tokens again. What does the launch of the live streaming feature on Zora signify?

Original Title: https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_28564.html
Original Author: San, Deep Tide TechFlow

On September 15, 2025, Base founder Jesse Pollak announced that the team is exploring a native token for Base, attracting widespread attention and discussion in the crypto market. (Note: On October 15, Base co-founder Jesse Pollak mentioned again in an interview that Base will issue a token and develop it based on Ethereum, aiming to achieve ecological interoperability.)

As the leading L2 under Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Base has a TVL of approximately $7.2 billion. With numerous SocialFi products in its ecosystem, it boasts nearly 700,000 daily active addresses on-chain, ranking first among all L2s.

This series of data has led the market to have high expectations for Base's token issuance. Additionally, the recent rebranding of Coinbase Wallet to Base App, along with significant updates to the product that include social and payment features, seems to indicate that the native token for Base is on the horizon.

The current market believes that Base is likely to complete its TGE in Q4 of this year and may distribute airdrop shares based on interaction records of leading projects within the Base ecosystem.

Such speculation has made the leading applications within the Base ecosystem scarce assets, with many users turning their attention to Zora.

As a leading application within the Base ecosystem, Zora has performed exceptionally well over the past month and announced on October 14 that it will soon launch a live streaming feature on the platform, seemingly preparing for the upcoming "big" events.

The "content is currency" narrative of traditional crypto creator economy platforms has gradually lost its novelty for Meme players. Compared to text and images, live streaming can provide audiences with richer content and FOMO emotions on various levels. It is foreseeable that a large number of "talented" creators will launch more narratively compelling Memes through Zora's live streaming feature.

Zora: From NFT Platform to Creator Economy Infrastructure

Zora was founded in 2020 and received support from Coinbase's venture capital fund during its early launch phase, raising a total of $60 million through three rounds of financing.

Zora launched at a time when the NFT narrative was booming. As the NFT platform of the Base ecosystem, Zora captured over 50% of the NFT market share on Base. Until this year, Zora has completed its transformation from an NFT platform to a popular content platform within the Base ecosystem, establishing a natural advantage in the distribution of Base tokens.

In April 2025, the $Zora token was issued with a total supply of 10 billion tokens, of which 50% was allocated to the community. At that time, the market was busy chasing various Memes on Solana, and not many eyes were on Zora.

A turning point occurred in July when Zora underwent significant updates, enabling large-scale issuance of creator tokens and meme coins on the platform through Base integration, officially transitioning from an NFT trading platform to a popular meme launching platform, quickly becoming the hottest application in the Base ecosystem.

Compared to established products like Pump.Fun, the later entrant Zora has absorbed a lot of "senior" experience and implemented numerous innovative mechanisms.

In terms of token types, Zora not only has tokens corresponding to content but also introduced a "creator coin" for each creator, with each user profile corresponding to one, allowing creators to earn additional rewards recognized by the market through providing quality content on this platform.

The core innovation lies in Zora's revenue distribution model design. The trading fee for tokens on the Zora platform has decreased from an initial 3% to 1%, with 50% paid directly to creators, 20% permanently locked for token liquidity, 20% rewarded to developers/platforms that recommend creators to deploy tokens, 4% as rewards for specific trading addresses, and 5% entering the platform treasury.

Moreover, this distribution mechanism is closely related to its platform token $Zora, with all rewards converted to $Zora tokens for payment, and all income entering the platform treasury will support the price through market buybacks.

Overall, Zora provides users with a user-friendly and almost barrier-free token issuance tool, allowing any content creator to deploy tokens with one click, and creators can earn continuous income from secondary market transactions rather than one-time profits from selling.

According to data, Zora generated over $460 million in trading volume in July, nearly ten times its historical NFT trading total. It issued over 1.6 million creator tokens, surpassing competitors like Pump.fun during the same period, becoming one of the most active meme issuing platforms in the Base ecosystem.

The most direct manifestation of this transformation is reflected in the price of $Zora. According to Coingecko data, this transformation caused $Zora's price to rise rapidly from $0.012 to around $0.09 in just ten days, achieving an increase of nearly 800%.

Recent Performance and Analysis

In the past month, Zora has demonstrated strong competitiveness in both price resilience and product iteration.

After the price increase in July and August, as the narrative of the creator economy gradually cooled in September and the crypto market experienced a downturn, the price of $Zora also fell back to around $0.05.

On October 10, Zora announced its launch on Robinhood, becoming the first Base ecosystem token to go live on Robinhood. On the launch day, the price of $Zora surged approximately 70% from $0.05 to $0.085, with a 24-hour trading volume skyrocketing about 780% to $569 million, bringing significant liquidity improvement to $Zora. On the other hand, the launch on Robinhood also signifies mainstream market recognition of Zora's value and attention to the development of the Base ecosystem.

Additionally, the holding structure of $Zora has changed significantly during September and October. According to on-chain data, a large number of whales have entered the market to build positions or increase their holdings of $Zora in the past 30 days, especially during the overall market downturn in September, where large holders continued to buy against the trend. This change in holding structure seems to indicate that Zora's long-term value is being recognized at an institutional level.

Following the launch on Robinhood, the announcement of increased tariffs on China by Trump on October 11 became a black swan event, further drawing market attention to $Zora amid the largest black swan event in crypto market history.

According to data, on October 11, the price of $Zora briefly dropped from a peak of $0.12 to $0.05, but unlike most assets that struggled to rebound, $Zora quickly returned to around $0.1 within a day, with a single-day increase of nearly 50%, becoming one of the few assets to complete "post-disaster reconstruction" early.

The strong resilience demonstrated by $Zora during this black swan event has led many investors in the market to include it in their watchlists. On October 15, the price of $Zora again showed strong resilience, returning from $0.08 to around $0.1.

From an ecological perspective, Zora currently almost monopolizes the creator economy track within Base, with over 90% of meme coins in the Base ecosystem coming from Zora. Such impressive data also provides strong support for market speculation regarding Zora's share weight in the distribution of Base tokens.

In October, Zora also announced a reduction in trading fees from 3% to 1%, with 50% of the revenue returned directly to creators. While this concession may impact protocol revenue in the short term, it is beneficial for more users to participate and for future expansion in the long run. The exhibited pattern also brings Zora better "public relations."

Recently, the Zora platform has shown clear strategic acceleration. On October 14, Zora's official Twitter announced the upcoming launch of live streaming features, reminiscent of the live streaming feature launched by Pump.Fun, which brought numerous viral events and meme coins in a short period.

Although Zora has not yet updated the detailed introduction of this live streaming feature, based on the current mechanism of content tokens on the Zora platform, we can predict the potential impact of the live streaming launch on $Zora.

For example, users could use $Zora to tip streamers in real-time, and streamers could use $Zora to mint NFTs for their fan groups as identity markers. Additionally, it could also develop into users unlocking high-quality paid live streaming rooms and privileges through $Zora consumption.

All these possibilities will provide clear upward momentum for $Zora, showcasing a model that is more aligned with long-term development and the price of $Zora compared to Pump.Fun.

Potential Risks

Although Zora has many favorable factors and information, the risks behind its growth cannot be ignored.

The main issue is the lack of liquidity for most creator tokens on the Zora platform. Currently, CoinGecko only tracks 9 tokens with meaningful market capitalization, with a total market cap of only $18 million. Compared to the tens of millions in market cap for popular meme launching platforms on BSC and SOL, Zora still has significant room to catch up.

If the recent market volatility leads to a cooling of market sentiment, it could likely trigger widespread liquidity exhaustion.

A more direct investment risk lies in token unlocks. On October 30, 160 million Zora tokens will be unlocked, accounting for 4.55% of the total supply, which may create significant selling pressure in the short term.

On the other hand, the upcoming live streaming feature may also be a double-edged sword. Pump.Fun is a prime example; while the live streaming feature attracted many meme players to enter the market at that time, it later faced more market controversies due to poor content management, and the collective trend of popular assets dropping to zero caused significant losses for many investors.

However, unlike Pump.Fun's consistently "wild" development path and inexperienced young team, Zora is backed by the more mature and "steady" Base ecosystem, and its demonstrated operational capabilities have somewhat alleviated similar concerns. Currently, the Zora platform has over 2.9 million users, providing ample resources for the dissemination of the live streaming feature. Perhaps this time Zora can present us with a new answer combining crypto and live streaming.

Seizing the Window of Base Token Issuance Expectations

Zora provides a clear path for participating in the expected Base token airdrop. Its core position in the Base ecosystem, strong growth data, and demonstrated price resilience all indicate that this is a project worth paying attention to.

Currently, the $850 million FDV still has reasonable upside potential relative to Zora's ecological position and growth potential. Especially under the catalyst of Base token expectations, its value as a leading application in the ecosystem may be further amplified.

However, the high uncertainty in the market in the short term and the upcoming large unlocks also pose resistance to $Zora. Investors can monitor recent market changes and price performance post-unlock to decide whether to add $Zora to their investment lists.

The expectation for Base token issuance is gradually approaching. In the context of intensified competition among L2s, the launch of a native token by Base is almost an inevitable choice, and Zora's position in this regard is a project that cannot be overlooked for those seeking to gain from Base's airdrop.

The opportunity is right in front of us; the key is whether we can accurately grasp the timing and rhythm. ```