Base's promotion of Creator Coin, largely through a close collaboration with NFT marketplace Zora, has come under growing criticism from community members who say the strategy is alienating projects that helped regain the network's early momentum.
In recent months, Base has become a hub for “creator coins,” tokens tied to individual creators, posts, and content, and Zora is at the center of that story.
Proponents argue that the model represents a new source of on-chain revenue for creators and a cultural gateway to cryptocurrencies. On-chain data also reflects high activity, with Base’s daily token mints surpassing Solana in August of this year.
However, dissatisfaction is growing among the Base community on X. Builders say Base is promoting a narrow, privileged ecosystem while sidelining other Base-native projects with established communities and track records.
Jacek, who runs the degen token ecosystem at Base, vented his frustrations with X in a post that reflected the negative change in sentiment.
Jacek claimed that Base's marketing and social support has become increasingly selective, prioritizing Zora-related efforts while ignoring projects that previously brought meaningful growth and liquidity to the chain.
“I am truly disappointed in @base’s heavy-handed push around Creator Coin,” he wrote. “We still can't even get people to follow the official Base
Jacek added that when degen bridged to Solana, it received immediate support from Solana X's official account and Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz.
The backlash highlights the broader tensions facing Base as it struggles to bridge the gap between growing adoption while maintaining positive sentiment for people building apps and tokens on it.
Base continues to average over 10 million transactions per day, according to Basescan, so it's perfectly fine in the short term, but the drop in sentiment could see an outflow to other chains like Solana and Sui.
It remains to be seen whether Base will adapt to the change in sentiment, but if the overall mood among Base builders continues to plummet, rival blockchains will be waiting to take advantage.
