1. Market Performance

On July 16th, Coinbase officially rebranded Coinbase Wallet to the Base App, transforming the wallet into a one-stop social and payment platform. The Base App integrates the Farcaster social feed and the Zora protocol, allowing users to mint their profiles and posts into tradable tokens. Users can mint content tokens through Zora for every piece of content they publish, and they can generate creator tokens by creating a profile. This allows for on-chain exposure, trading, and direct monetization.

As of July 30th, the ZORA token had risen from approximately $0.008 at the beginning of the month to $0.078, briefly reaching an all-time high of $0.1003 on July 27th. This represents a monthly increase of approximately 875%, and its market capitalization has soared to $781 million, making it one of the most closely watched projects of this rally. Meanwhile, since July 26th, the Base network's average daily token issuance has surpassed Solana's for three consecutive days, a historic first. In terms of Base and Solana's respective market share, the Zora platform has maintained its lead since July 23rd. As of July 28th, it had issued 51,575 tokens, accounting for 62.69% of Base's total, exceeding the combined daily issuance of its peers Letsbonk and pump.fun.

II. Project Mechanism

Zora is a decentralized, on-chain social and creator economy platform that allows users to automatically mint their social media content (text, images, AI art, etc.) into tradable ERC-20 content tokens. In addition, every registered user automatically receives a Creator Coin, representing their profile. Every content published, community interaction, and transaction is recorded on-chain, allowing creators to monetize directly through the marketplace without relying on traditional platform advertising or subscription models.

1. Content Coin

• Source: Each user-published content is automatically minted into an independent ERC‑20 token on Zora. The total supply is usually fixed at 1 billion, and the author can initially obtain a 1% share, or 10 million tokens.
• Purpose: A "work token" representing a specific piece of content, which can be traded in the market and is more of an expressive and speculative collection.
• Revenue mechanism: Each content currency transaction will generate a transaction fee (round-trip approximately 3%), of which 1% will be rewarded to the content author in the form of ZORA tokens.

2. Creator Coin

• Source: After each user registers on Zora and creates a personal profile, their Creator Coin is automatically generated, and the total supply is also 1 billion.
• Distribution mechanism: 50% are immediately tradable, and the remaining 50% (500 million) are owned by the creators, which are unlocked linearly on a monthly basis over a 5-year period. However, under the unlocking conditions, the tokens must be traded before they are actually released.
• Revenue Mechanism: Creators can earn revenue through two channels:

·Transaction fees incurred by content currency transactions;

· The trading and unlocking income of Creator Coin itself (the more active the trading, the more unlocking, and the greater the income).

The platform utilizes a bonding curve: each content token is paired with a corresponding creator token and traded on Uniswap v4. All tokens are denominated in ZORA tokens. Users must hold ZORA to mint or trade these content tokens and creator tokens. Of the approximately 3% transaction fees generated by content transactions, 1% is used as a reward to creators in the form of ZORA. Furthermore, as Creator Token trading becomes active, more tokens are gradually unlocked, allowing creators to benefit from the increased value of their Creator Tokens. This creates a self-reinforcing economic cycle: creators publish content → content tokens are traded → ZORA rewards are earned → Creator Token liquidity and value are increased → ZORA demand is driven, stimulating ecosystem growth.

3. Popular Ecosystem Projects

1. Content Tokens (Base is for everyone)

"Base is for everyone" was initially automatically generated on Zora following a tweet from Base's official Twitter account. Many users mistakenly believed Base had officially issued a token, sparking a buying frenzy and speculation. The token's market capitalization briefly surged to approximately $17 million before plummeting to $1.9 million (a 90% drop). Coinbase stated, "Base did not issue or sell tokens. This is simply Base publishing content on Zora, which is automatically tokenized by the Zora platform." The company also clarified that this is not an official token for Base, Coinbase, or any related products.

Currently, the market capitalization of Base is for everyone has rebounded to approximately $7.6 million. Among Zora content-based memes, this token boasts the highest market capitalization, trading volume, and number of holders (many times that of other projects). Despite not being officially endorsed by Coinbase, the token maintains significant attention thanks to market consensus and community enthusiasm.

IV. Future Development

With the Base App's deep integration of the Zora Protocol and Farcaster's social layer, Zora is no longer just a tokenization tool; it has become the core infrastructure of SocialFi. In the future, Zora is expected to launch an on-chain brand sponsorship system, allowing brands to sponsor content, stake content tokens, and even activate creator influence. For example, the platform already supports content token holders to pin comments on posts, and this feature can be expanded to include native advertising formats such as brand promotion interfaces and event sponsorship portals. Combining content token transactions with a token reward mechanism, Zora has the potential to build a truly closed ecosystem that directly channels brand funds into the creator economy, eliminating the need for traditional advertising formats such as banners or pop-ups.

While brands haven't yet fully engaged with the Zora content economy, market potential is evident. According to Balaji, a top Zora creator, this type of advertising mechanism is gradually evolving: currently, the largest token holders can participate in content exposure through pinned comments, essentially a rudimentary advertising unit. If this mechanism can be fully and systematically integrated with brand partnerships, it will not only generate revenue for creators but also allow advertising revenue to be natively integrated into the system in the form of tokens, rather than through traditional channels.

Risk Warning:

The information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any financial asset. All information is provided in good faith. However, we make no representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of such information.

All cryptocurrency investments (including returns) are inherently highly speculative and involve significant risk of loss. Past, hypothetical, or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The value of digital currencies can rise or fall, and buying, selling, holding, or trading digital currencies can involve significant risks. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital currencies is appropriate for you based on your personal investment objectives, financial situation, and risk tolerance. BitMart does not provide any investment, legal, or tax advice.