Following weeks of hype in the run-up to the airdrop and the associated centralized exchange (CEX) listings, sentiment indicators for Zora tokens have dropped, suggesting this was a short-term trend.
Zora marked the advent of content coins, a controversial trend that bore the support of Base creator Jesse Powell.
Zora Token Sentiment Drops Post-Airdrop: Was It Just Hype?
According to data on CoinGecko, the ZORA token price is down by 11.5% in the last 24 hours. As of this writing, it was trading for $0.01244.
ZORA Price Performance. Source: CoinGecko
This drop is unsurprising considering how much sentiment has fizzled out for the token after the Zora airdrop. The Zora airdrop aimed to boost ecosystem participation by distributing 10% of its 10 billion ZORA tokens to early users.
According to data on LunarCrash, engagement and mentions have dwindled since April 23, when the Zora airdrop happened.
Specifically, engagement is down by 98%, from over 12.2 million to around 142,000 as of this writing. Meanwhile, Zora mentions are down 58% since April 23. Further, creators on the Zora app have reduced by 57.6% since April 23, whereas sentiment is down by a modest 6%.
Zora Mentions and Engagement. Source: LunarCrush
Meanwhile, data on SimilarWeb shows platform traffic on Zora.co has dropped from 500,000 to 300,000 over the past three months. Data on Dune also indicates that users on the Zora Network have decreased by 90% since the peak in early April 2024.
Zora Network Users. Source: Dune Analytics
A look at the “Coin It” indicator reveals the same sentiment, showing a sharp decline in the frequency of Jesse Pollak’s phrase “coin this” or “coin it” on social media. After peaking at 15 mentions on April 15, this metric is down to 1 after the Zora airdrop. This suggests a decline in engagement with content coins post-airdrop.
Zora Coin It. Source: samczsun on X
Jesse Pollak admitted in a thread that he had received feedback about being too aggressive in communication earlier, leading to some missteps in messaging. He said he has since adjusted by slowing things down.
“…I got feedback on being too loud, and to be direct I made some mistakes in my messaging, so I’ve taken that feedback and slowed down,” Pollak stated.
Nevertheless, this decision does not mean he stopped believing in content coins and on-chain social platforms like Zora. Pollak is committed to helping builders push boundaries on Base toward realizing on-chain’s full potential.
Pollak pushed the concept of content coins on the Base platform. It involves tokenizing individual pieces of content on-chain.
In a recent interview with BeInCrypto, Pollak distinguished between meme coins and content coins. He emphasized the latter’s potential to empower creators without reliance on speculative communities.
Pollak also articulated Base’s vision to expand the on-chain creator ecosystem. To do this, they would foster virality and creativity while lowering the barrier for non-crypto users to engage with blockchain technology.
“We’re working to bring a billion people on-chain, and we know we can’t do that alone. I have a lot of respect for the Solana team – they have done a lot to onboard people into crypto, and I’m glad to see that. We’re looking to grow the pie, not just compete for the existing pie. And we see content coins on Base as one way to grow that pie,” Pollack told BeInCrypto.
However, the charts above imply a potential lack of sustained interest, aligning with criticisms questioning the long-term viability of such experiments on platforms like Zora.
