Original author: BUBBLE

After surging nearly tenfold for 20 consecutive days, $ZORA hit a new all-time high on August 12th, with a 24-hour gain approaching 50% and a circulating market capitalization approaching $480 million. This may be due to the launch of perpetual contracts on Binance, or perhaps the combined user momentum and increased trading volume following the integration of the Base app. The strong upward trend and Coinbase's active promotion even led community members to jokingly claim that it had been "incorporated" into the official token.

Regardless of how the driving factors are broken down, this surge, coupled with the previous debate between the founders of Base and Solana on this issue, has once again put the spotlight on "content/creator coins." What exactly have they achieved? And what opportunities can we find in their ecosystem?

Is Zora’s rise due to “content” or institutional push?

Zora's new paradigm is that each creator receives one Creator Coin (a total of 1 billion, with 50% vesting linearly over five years). Each post also earns a "Content Coin," which is paired with the Creator Coin and then with $ZORA. To reduce friction in the three-step exchange process from USDC to Content Coin, Zora has introduced solutions like 0x aggregation on the routing side, improving the flow and access efficiency from fiat currency entry to content assets. Creators receive a 1% fee on each transaction, providing a direct incentive for continued creation.

The advantage of this model is that, unlike launch platforms like Pumpfun, which require a carefully planned buildup and then release a few wealth-effect coins to recapture attention, Zora's approach is to "build volume first." Issuing tokens on Zora is much less burdensome. Each post is a token issuance, and because each token is paired with the creator's token, the value of the content gradually increases across the entire account. This has allowed Zora to issue over 2 million tokens in a short period of time. Furthermore, the trading pair with Zora has led to an explosive increase in Zora's adoption rate.

As can be seen from the chart, Zora’s adoption is positively correlated with its price increase. Source: Messari

Pumpfun has issued approximately 12 million tokens, with approximately 20,000 to 30,000 new tokens added daily. Zora, on the other hand, has issued 2 million tokens, with approximately 35,000 to 55,000 new tokens added daily. Pumpfun's daily active users (DAU) remain consistently above 100,000, while Zora currently has only 35,000 creators (with DAUs of 10,000 to 20,000). This represents a tenfold difference in the proportion of tokens generated per user. While not comprehensive, this suggests that, based solely on token quantity, the network effect generated by each additional user on Zora is ten times greater than that on Pumpfun.

Over the past month, with the release of the new Base App, it has gradually connected Zora, Farcaster, and Noice. Zora is responsible for "turning content into tradable assets" (Creator Coin/Post Coin), and Noice is responsible for "social distribution and rewards" (USDC/multi-currency tips, direct payments within the timeline). The two form a closed loop of "creation-distribution-monetization" in the same user interface of Base.

After integrating Zora with the Base app, creators can mint, trade, and receive payments without redirecting to other platforms. Noice, on July 27th, announced its integration with Zora, offering a lightweight monetization mechanism called "one like, one reward." This combined approach condenses the previously fragmented "posting/wallet/DEX/reward tool" process into a single entry point, improving conversion rates and user retention.

On the one hand, there is the growth of dissemination channels, and on the other hand, there is the improvement of the creator system. In addition, Zora and Base officials are also actively recruiting artists and content creators outside the circle to join the platform. SamandColby's Chief Operating Officer Kong Pham revealed that some Web 2 content creators with a large fan base will soon flock to Zora and Farcaster.

This series of actions has greatly increased Zora's MindShare on social media (1456%). In this era where "attention" is "opportunity", Zora seems to have found a way to grow besides "pulling the market", that is, making money at no cost (as evidenced by the overwhelming tweets on X stream about Base system creators making money by posting articles).

In addition, Zora has many channels for distributing its influence. Currently, multiple platforms have integrated Zora's content currency dashboard or indicators, including the indicators launched by indexy (the top 20 influential tokens/creators on Zora), token dashboards launched by Zoracle , Matcha , Zora Terminal , TBD , etc., and Slayed , the founder of Loudio, also announced that he would establish a Zora index fund and use it to create a DAO to co-create creators to increase dissemination channels.

What tokens are there in the ecosystem?

zxbt

This is an "autonomous AI artist" project created by former Wall Street high-frequency trader and AI Builder dev 0 xx. It generates an original work of art every day and automatically mints the corresponding content coins and NFTs without human intervention. The key is that its creative process and ideas are distributed daily in conjunction with the final work. A very interesting recent update is that Messari researcher Jake " @immutablejacob " gave it a suggestion on the artistic style direction of its next work on Twitter, and it shared a painting in the style of Van Gogh. The creator of the AI, dex 0 xx, said, "ZXBT was stubborn at first, but as the community demanded more diversity, it continued to evolve. In this article, @zxbt_agent directly tagged a user in the description to share with us who influenced his art. In my opinion, the influence of each work's style should be distributed according to the influence of the proposer."

This means that every token/artwork it issues can be disseminated through the "recommendation or promotion" of even more influential individuals, as exemplified by the Messrai researcher. ZXBT itself can leverage its more influential aesthetic to drive its own artwork, and the entire transformation process can be observed on its official website and platform.

The highest market value of zxbt reached 18 million US dollars, the current market value is 13.8 million US dollars, the trading volume in the past 24 hours is 290,000 US dollars, and the holders are 1,400.

FakeTaxi

FakeTaxi, the established adult content brand founded by Jonathan Todd and Lew Thomas in 2013, has launched its first Creator Coin, $FakeTaxi. Officials have announced plans to migrate exclusive content to the Zora platform, replacing traditional social media platforms. By burning a certain number of tokens while holding specific Zora NFTs, users can receive benefits such as voice greetings from performers, customized selfies, exclusive backstage videos, and even signed merchandise. $FakeTaxi aims to create a continuous consumption scenario through tokens, forming a natural deflationary driver and creating a new interactive experiment that deeply integrates adult entertainment with the Web 3 fan economy.

Theoretically, this is not the first time the two fields have "cooperated", but some community members believe that Onlyfans' successful business logic can serve as a precedent for content platforms such as Zora, and the logic of this cooperation seems to be able to serve as a "proofready" for other related projects or creators to enter Zora.

Faketaxi's highest market value reached $12.5 million, and its current market value is $7.36 million. Its trading volume in the past 24 hours was $148,300, and it has 1,184 holders.

Visualize Value

Visualize Value is a content and education platform run by Jack Butcher, the founder of the renowned art NFT projects Opepen and Checks VV. It serves as a platform for his artistic thinking. Through minimalist yet insightful illustrations, it teaches people how to communicate ideas using graphic language. It is used to illustrate abstract concepts such as mental models, philosophical ideas, and efficiency tools.

Visualize Value's highest market value reached $16 million, and its current market value is $5.03 million. Its trading volume in the past 24 hours was $30,000, and it has 2,073 holders.

11 AM

11 AM is a livestream program promoted by Seed Club and hosted by @thattallguy and @joshcrnls. The name "11 AM" refers to its Monday-Friday broadcast schedule of 11 a.m. ET (Live M–F 11 am ET). The program emphasizes "Early to narratives. Earlier to founders. Front-run the future," meaning they're keen to get in touch with new creators and concepts before trends take hold. The program frequently invites industry experts, founders, and developers to discuss current trends in Web 3 and the creator economy. Topics typically include the Web 3 creator economy, memecoins, creator coins, decentralized social networks, and on-chain communities.

11 AM’s highest market capitalization reached $2.2 million, and its current market capitalization is $1.83 million, but its on-chain liquidity is low, with only 317 holders.

Zora's recent surge, whether driven by capital or product, reflects a common trend: content is becoming the core entry point for on-chain liquidity. From Zora's launch to creator tokens and creator-created tokens, the interconnected "layered platform," coupled with the trinity of creation, distribution, and monetization, has transformed Zora's valuation and narrative in the market.

From the algorithmic aesthetics of zxbt to FakeTaxi's adult entertainment experiments, and the social content expansions of Visualize Value and 11 AM, these projects are both a microcosm of the Zora ecosystem and a blueprint for the future of the Web 3 content economy. The next amplification may not be the performance of a single token, but the full-scale explosion of the entire creator economy on-chain.