Base’s promotion of Creator Coins, primarily through its close alignment with NFT marketplace Zora, is drawing increasing criticism from community members who say the strategy is alienating the projects that helped bootstrap the network’s early momentum.
In recent months, the Layer 2 Base Network has become the center of “creator coins,” which are tokens tied to individual creators, posts or pieces of content, with Zora sitting at the center of that narrative. Base is a blockchain built by crypto exchange Coinbase, on top of the Ethereum blockchain, using the open-source OP Stack, a developer toolkit for the Optimism Network.
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Proponents argue that the model represents a new on-chain revenue stream for creators and a cultural on-ramp for crypto. Onchain data also shows strong activity, with daily token mints overtaking Solana on a base basis in August this year.
However, there is growing frustration among the bass community regarding X. Builders claim that Base is promoting a narrow, favored ecosystem while sidelining other Base-native projects with established communities and track records.
Jacek, who runs the Dezeen token ecosystem on Base, expressed his disappointment on X with a post that echoed the negative shift in sentiment.
Jacek argued that Base’s marketing and social support has become increasingly selective, favoring Zora-related initiatives while ignoring projects that previously provided meaningful growth and fluidity to the series.
“I’m really disappointed by @Base’s forced move on Creator Coins,” he wrote. “We still have the official base to follow us
Jacek said that when Dezeen reached out to Solana, they received immediate support from the official Solana X account and Helios CEO Mert Mumtaz.
The backlash highlights a broader tension facing Base as it struggles to bridge the gap between scaling adoption while maintaining positive sentiment with those building apps or tokens on Base.
In the short term, Base is doing perfectly fine as it continues to average over 10 million transactions per day, according to Basescan, but weakening sentiment could see an exodus to other chains like Solana or Sui.
It remains to be seen whether Base will adapt to changing sentiments, but if the general mood among Base builders continues to decline, rival blockchains may be waiting to take advantage.
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