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    Base App and Zora: How Coinbase’s superapp breathed a second wind into SocialFi

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    In mid-July 2025, Coinbase unveiled a redesigned version of its cryptocurrency wallet, Base App. The company characterized the product as a universal Web3 application “for everything.” And its launch seems to have ushered in a new phase of content tokenization and a noticeable impact on the SocialFi niche.

    This was vividly illustrated by Zora, a platform for creating and monetizing publications. A few days after the release of the Base App, the ZORA token grew by almost 800% and user activity increased manifold.

    Incrypted ‘s editorial team looked into how Base App works, what Zora is, and how the synergy of these projects has breathed new life into the SocialFi sector.

    Not a Product, But a “Base”

    Base App is a super app introduced by Coinbase on July 17, 2025 at the A New Day One event. It is an evolution of the Coinbase Wallet cryptocurrency wallet and is focused not just on storing assets, but on broad participation in the Web3 economy.

    The app is built on the Base blockchain, which the company built on Optimism’s OP Stack.

    According to the developers, Base App aims to be a single interface for a wide variety of onchain activities. From communication to network payments and interaction with decentralized applications (dApps).

    Among the key features of the project are:

    Essentially, the app tries to combine social networks, finance and various Web3 tools in one interface. This makes it a sort of centralized hub for the entire Base ecosystem.

    “Today, I’m more optimistic about creators and the creator economy than I’ve ever been. I will use the app frequently to publish content and support creators with a portion of the revenue from their publications,” said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong after the product launch.

    At the current stage, the app is in beta testing and is only available to those who have registered on the waitlist. Coinbase has also waived commissions on USDC transfers in chat rooms for the time being to attract the attention of its audience.

    The company also offers a Sign in with Base login feature that allows you to authorize in the app with a single click, just like it works with Google or Facebook.

    By the way, on July 25, the project team sent out the first batch of rewards to content creators who started using Base App. According to the developers, over 2,800 people received a total of more than $10,000.

    Zora Welcomes You

    Zora Protocol is a project launched back in 2020 as an open source decentralized NFT marketplace. It initially focused on creating an alternative to platforms like OpenSea, offering creators a “fairer” publishing model.

    In 2023, the developers launched their own Zora Network, an Ethereum-based L2 network built using OP Stack. Over time, the protocol evolved into a media tokenization tool, and in April 2025, the project team unveiled the ZORA token, while expanding the platform’s functionality towards SocialFi.

    It is worth noting that the team launched the asset on the Base network and did not use its own blockchain for this purpose. The network’s intended use case was limited to media content, tokenization of posts, and a few other use cases.

    The new stage of development allowed users to turn social posts into tradable tokens — so-called creator coins. This, in turn, opened the way for authors to directly monetize content.

    As for the ZORA token, it fulfills several functions:

    • it is used to issue creator coins;
    • participates in payments to creators;
    • serves as “fuel” for referral and trading programs;
    • potentially suitable for managing DAOs.

    After the transformation, the platform has made efforts to rapidly build up its user base by conducting airdrop (10% of the total ZORA 10 billion). As a result, by July 2025, hundreds of thousands of new addresses had registered on the platform.


    Graph of daily active wallets on the Zora platform. Data: Dune Analytics.

    Zora’s integration with Base App was implemented directly in the app’s interface, which simplified the user experience when tokenizing content. People were able to monetize a post in one click by posting it to their feed and immediately bidding on it.

    Given the size of Coinbase’s user base, such a move dramatically simplified access to the SocialFi project and led to a jump in the number of authors and traders.

    According to Dune Analytics, the daily number of tokens created rose from 4,000 to over 15,000, with a peak of 38,000. An additional 8,000+ daily active wallets were added to the ecosystem, and payouts to authors reached $3.1 million cumulatively.


    Overview of Zora platform results. Data: Dune Analytics.

    To the Moon

    One of the most notable effects of integrating Zora into the Base App has been the explosive growth of ZORA’s price. In less than two weeks since the launch of the super app, the token’s value has increased by more than 790%, from $0.011 to $0.098 at its peak, according to CoinMarketCap data.

    At the time of writing, the asset is trading at $0.085, and its market capitalization is almost $280 million.


    ZORA token exchange rate dynamics between July 22 and July 29, 2025. Data: CoinMarketCap.

    The ZORA rally was accompanied by a massive influx of new users and a sharp increase in trading volume.

    The reasons for this surge appear to be several:

    • integration with Base App simplified token issuance. This dramatically increased demand from creators and traders alike. According to Dune, the total number of tokens created reached 1.46 million, and the number of unique traders exceeded 2.88 million;
    • listings on major exchanges — Binance and KuCoin futures with leverage up to 50x were added on July 25 and 26. This attracted speculative capital and increased the volatility of the asset;
    • social media discussion — mentions of the term creator coins increased significantly after the launch of the Base App, which amplified the effect of media presence and triggered a “crowd effect” in buyers’ actions.

    It can be said that these factors formed a “snowball effect”. The growth in the number of posts and authors generates demand for ZORA, which in turn raises the price, and the jump in the rate attracts the attention of new participants.

    The project also entered the top 200 assets by market capitalization on the Coinbase exchange, ranking 182nd at the time of preparation of the material. At the same time, the token managed to stay on the list even despite the correction that followed after the peak was reached.


    Top assets by market capitalization from 181 to 190 position on the Coinbase exchange. Data: Coinbase.

    In addition to the aforementioned success factors, a serious boost in Zora’s popularity could come from Influencers. In one of the interviews, the project team mentioned that the famous YouTube-blogger Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast) with a channel of 417 million subscribers, is an early investor of Zora. He invested in the project even before the token was launched, in one of the private funding series.

    Messari’s corporate research manager, under the nickname AvgJoesCrypto, said that attracting this level of influencer could be “the most profitable strategic move” for the startup. He estimated that even with a 1% chance of MrBeast issuing its own creator coin through Zora, it could mean an additional $250 million to $500 million in capitalization.

    In addition, AvgJoesCrypto stated that the ZORA token is undervalued at the current stage. Apparently, the expert sees a significant potential for price increase.

    What They Say in The Community

    The launch of the Base App and the growth of Zora activity have caused a noticeable response in the cryptocurrency community.

    For example, Moonwell Finance founder and former Coinbase engineer Luke Youngblood said he was impressed with the SocialFi platform’s capabilities and potential.

    “This is probably the first app that I see that can cause Instagram and TikTok to crash and help authors monetize their content and brand. The pure hate it generates speaks to its potential, so I decided to take advantage of it,” the developer wrote.

    Other members of the X (formerly Twitter) community have expressed similar sentiments. A user under the nickname Sant0s_eth expressed the opinion that Zora “changes the way creators and users interact” online.

    At the same time, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman believes that the said protocol would have gained acceptance without the intervention of Base App. However, he recognized the impact of such a combination on strengthening the positions of both projects. The entrepreneur also actively supports Zora and invests in the token.

    Zora Protocol co-founder Jacob Samuel Horn wasn’t left out either. According to him, the project represents a “new economy of creators” of content, and now is the time to capitalize on its opportunities. Developers continue to work on new features, and the protocol has seen a significant increase in users recently, Horne emphasized.

    That said, there are still some controversial points in the discussion. The most common criticism is centralization, due to the fact that both Zora and Base App are closely tied to Coinbase. According to some in the community, the platform, and app are controlled by the same organization and lack full transparency.

    There are also concerns about ZORA’s volatility — the RSI index has been climbing above 90, indicating overheating, according to analysts.

    The integration of Zora into Base App was an example of how smart infrastructure and smart implementation can change the dynamics of an entire sector. In the case of the SocialFi project, the transition from a niche platform to a mass tokenization tool for content accessible to a wide range of users worked.

    ZORA’s price jump, activity on the platform, and experts’ reactions show that this could be a long-term success. If the trend of “tokenization of attention” continues, Zora and Base App could become one of the key players in the SocialFi niche.

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