Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base launched a cultural meme coin experiment that rapidly gained $17 million in value before collapsing amid community backlash.
The token’s 99% crash was triggered by Base unexpectedly releasing a second meme coin, revealing concerning issues like concentrated ownership and potential insider trading.
Despite initial disaster, community-led parody responses fueled a V-shaped recovery to $22 million, boosting Zora’s platform revenue while testing Base’s on-chain creator economy vision.
Base’s controversial “Base is for everyone” meme coin experiment sparked a dramatic market rollercoaster—soaring to $17M before crashing 99% and rebounding to $22M—revealing the volatile intersection of culture and speculation in crypto.
In the early hours of April 17, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base, made a surprising and controversial move: it launched a meme coin titled “Base is for everyone” on the Zora platform. It promoted the coin directly through its official X account. The token, intended as part of a cultural experiment to breathe life into Base’s meme ecosystem, sparked immediate enthusiasm. Its market cap soared to nearly $17 million within hours. But what followed was a stunning collapse that saw the token’s value plummet by 99% in just a few hours.
A BOLD LAUNCH WITH CREATIVE INTENTIONS
The launch of “Base is for everyone” was positioned not as a financial product, but as a piece of creative expression, it’s a community sentiment rather than a traditional speculative asset.
According to Base’s global builder NKECHI, the project was a manifestation of Base’s long-standing vision to “bring culture on-chain” and empower everyone, from brands and developers to artists and shitposters, to tokenize their creativity.
From a communications point of view, Base presented this as a public experiment. They wanted to see if memes could become a kind of cultural currency on the blockchain. The launch included eye-catching graphics, direct links to the Zora platform, and a confident message that made many people think this was an official Coinbase-backed project.
That impression caused a buying frenzy. The token’s market cap quickly jumped to between $15–20 million, and trading on Uniswap went over $13 million. For a short time, it seemed like the idea had worked: the Base community was excited, the mood was positive, and “Base is for everyone” looked like a big win.
THE CRASH: A MARKETING MOVE GONE WRONG
But things went downhill just as fast.
Only a few hours after the first token’s release, Base launched a second meme coin called “Base @ FarCon 2025.” This move caught many by surprise. Traders and community members felt blindsided, they had just poured millions into the first coin, only to see the focus shift immediately to a new one.
The reaction was swift and brutal. The price of “Base is for everyone” collapsed by over 99%, falling to just around $700,000. Many investors were left holding bags of worthless tokens. The community was outraged, accusing Base of mismanaging the launch and misleading people.
Worse, further investigation revealed that the token had a 20% transaction tax, which made trading extremely costly and reduced liquidity. Token ownership was also highly concentrated, the top three wallets held nearly half of the supply. One wallet alone held over 25%. These details sparked fears of market manipulation and insider trading.
Blockchain data confirmed that three wallets bought large amounts of the token before the official announcement, then sold for a total profit of around $666,000. This only made the backlash worse.
A V-SHAPED MEME REBOUND
Ironically, the very public collapse and confusion triggered a second wave of meme enthusiasm. As the dust settled, a wave of parody tokens and spin-offs using the format “___ is for everyone” flooded the ecosystem. With the help of sarcastic memes and community-led creativity, sentiment rebounded—and so did the token’s price.
“Base is for everyone” staged a dramatic V-shaped recovery, with its market cap rebounding to over $22 million, and 24-hour trading volume reaching $33 million. What started as a PR disaster turned into an unintentional masterclass in viral marketing, driven not by corporate messaging but by the community’s reinterpretation of failure into culture.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: ZORA’S ROLE AND BASE’S CULTURAL ECONOMY
One unexpected winner in all this was Zora, the platform where the token was launched. Zora allows users to turn posts into meme coins, and this campaign drove massive traffic to the site. Daily revenue hit a two-year high at $137,000, giving the struggling NFT-era platform a major boost.
Zora is also preparing to launch its token, ZORA, on the Base network. The first snapshot for token eligibility was taken on March 3, with a second one scheduled three days before launch. This entire event may end up playing a big role in getting attention for that rollout.
However, Zora’s market share is still small. As of April 16, Pump.fun held 74.3% of the meme coin market, while Zora had only 25.7%. And within the Base network itself, Zora’s share of meme coin activity was just 4%. Still, the sudden surge in use and attention could mark a turning point.
Meanwhile, Base and Coinbase continue to promote the idea of an “on-chain creator economy,” where content, culture, and value all live together on the blockchain.
The “Base is for everyone” incident is more than just a meme coin crash. It’s a case study in how unpredictable, fast-moving, and risky the crypto world can be, especially when culture and speculation collide.
While many traders lost money and trust in Base took a hit, the event also sparked new conversations about creativity, ownership, and on-chain expression. Whether it’s remembered as a mistake or a moment of innovation may depend on what happens next, and how the community continues to shape the culture of Web3.
〈Base Launches Memecoin “Base Is for Everyone” Surges Then Crashes 99% What Happened?〉這篇文章最早發佈於《CoinRank》。
