On April 17, a farce in the crypto circle shocked the eyes! The Base chain—this Layer2 star incubated by Coinbase, which has always considered itself a 'serious builder'—actually staged a Meme coin harvesting drama on the Zora platform. Mysterious wallets accurately bottomed out and made a profit of $666,000, while ordinary investors lost everything in the volatility; the official's eagerness to 'shift blame' completely ignited community anger: was this really an on-chain cultural experiment, or a meticulously planned feast to cut leeks?


1. A tweet at dawn ignites the market, only to plummet 95% in the blink of an eye: Retail investors become 'the ones left holding the bag.'

At 3:12 AM, @base officially launched the 'Base is for everyone' Meme coin on the @zora platform, with copy that directly ignited market sentiment, causing the market cap to soar to $17 million within 10 minutes, with countless retail investors jumping in. However, the plot took a sharp turn; within just 2 hours, the coin's value plummeted 95% as if in free fall, dropping to as low as $623,000—equivalent to $100 in principal being reduced to just $5 in an instant.


On-chain data reveals a brutal truth: three mysterious wallets had accumulated 47% of the tokens one hour before the official tweet, with an average price of only $0.0012 each. When the market cap peaked, they sold in batches at a high price of $0.023 each, netting a profit of $666,000. Meanwhile, retail investors who chased the high bought in at an average price generally in the range of $0.015-$0.02, suffering over 80% losses within just a few hours, with the X platform filled with self-deprecating comments like 'Staying up at 3 AM, you deserve to be cut.'


2. Concentrated holdings, with the official shifting blame under fire: 'Experiment' or 'collusion'?

Base officials urgently issued a statement: 'This token is not an official asset and has no relation to Coinbase; it is merely an experiment to encourage content on the Zora platform.' However, this explanation was seen by the community as 'shifting blame'—users pointedly replied: 'The official account promoted it personally, releasing it during the active trading hours of the early morning, what else could it be but a traffic draw?'

An even more fatal flaw lies in the token distribution: three major wallets hold 47%, and the top 10 wallets control 72%, completely violating the false proposition of 'distributed consensus' of Meme coins. An on-chain analyst pointed out that wallet address A (0x...89a) was discussed in the Base team's Discord server on April 16, 23:45, about 'big moves on Zora tomorrow,' suggesting possible insider information. Historical dirt on the Zora platform was also dug up: in 2024, it had funneled traffic for a certain project's tokens, later facing collective lawsuits from users due to similar 'pump and dump' schemes.

3. Base's credibility has collapsed, and the Layer2 ecosystem is affected: How much longer can Coinbase's halo last?

The impact of this incident on Base is far greater than the short-term market cap fluctuations. As a star Layer2 incubated by Coinbase, it has always prided itself on being 'compliant and tech-savvy,' with a total locked value (TVL) in DeFi protocols within its ecosystem exceeding $4.5 billion, attracting a large number of institutional developers. However, this 'Meme coin cutting leeks' operation has been questioned as 'using official credibility to endorse speculation.'

A chain reaction has occurred in the community:

Developer forums are hotly discussing 'whether to leave the Base ecosystem,' with a 63% decrease in new project inquiries within 24 hours.

Data platform Nansen has labeled this Meme coin as 'high-risk trading target,' raising the overall risk rating of the Base chain.

Regulatory agencies have spoken out: 'If market manipulation is confirmed, Coinbase may face a joint investigation by the SEC.'

Even the long-time supporters of Base, such as Vitalik's fans, bluntly stated: 'The value of Layer2 lies in reducing transaction costs, not in teaching retail investors to speculate on vaporware.'

4. Retail investors face blood losses: The dream of getting rich from Meme coins = high-risk trap.

This crash has ripped open the brutal truth of the Meme coin market:

1. Information disparity is the scythe: 90% of retail investors rely on official tweets for decision-making, while the whales use on-chain monitoring (like Nansen alerts, MEV bots) to position themselves in advance.

2. The control ratio is the lifeline: The top 10 wallets hold over 40% of the tokens, with a 99% probability of being 'whale coins.'

3. Early morning market = harvesting time: The crypto market from 10 PM to 4 AM is the active period for retail investors after European and American institutions finish work, historically a high-incidence period for pump and dump.

A senior trader summarized: 'The 'fair distribution' of Meme coins is a lie; the contract code stipulates that 50% of the tokens are controlled by the deployer, and the remaining 50% are made available for retail investors through a 'fair launch,' which is essentially 'an obvious scheme to cut leeks.'


The recent failure of the Base chain exposed the most paradoxical contradiction in the crypto market: on one hand, developers shout 'decentralized revolution,' while on the other hand, project parties use centralized means to harvest retail investors. Meme coins have never been about value investment; they are a game of 'who runs faster.' For ordinary investors, what should be remembered more than the 'get rich myth' is the heart-wrenching reply in the comments section of the Zora platform: 'A tweet at 3 AM is not the horn of dreams but the sound of sharpening the scythe.'