Imagine a scenario like this: any updates, selfies, or even short videos you post on Moments can be instantly "cast" into tradable digital collectibles, and every like and comment from fans will bring you tangible rewards. This is no longer a distant idea, but a new way of playing "social finance" that Zora is implementing. On April 20, 2025, Zora announced that it will officially launch its native token $ZORA on the Base chain on April 23. This issuance is not only a thank you to the early supporters of the community, but also a milestone in Zora's transformation from a decentralized NFT market to an on-chain social ecosystem.
1｜$ZORA Token: Making social platforms more than just entertainment
$ZORA has a total supply of 10 billion and will be launched on the Base chain on April 23, 2025. Zora made it clear that this is not a governance token or an equity certificate, but a pure "Memecoin" that brings entertainment and interaction to the community. $ZORA is positioned as a fun, non-investment tool.
The allocation scheme is as follows:
The 10% community airdrop will be distributed through two rounds of snapshots:
Snapshot 1 : 00:00 UTC on January 1, 2020 to 14:00 UTC on March 3, 2025
Snapshot 2 : 14:00 UTC on March 3, 2025 to 00:00 UTC on April 20, 2025
As a Memecoin, the value of $ZORA depends more on community enthusiasm and market sentiment than actual utility. This makes it both fun and speculative. Users need to be rational when participating to avoid losses due to market fluctuations.
2｜Zora Network—From NFT to a new way of socializing on the chain
Technology upgrade: low-cost Layer 2 network
Since 2023, Zora has launched a Layer2 network based on OP Stack, reducing the gas fee to an almost negligible level. According to Coingecko, the average transaction fee of the Zora network is only $0.001 (about 0.1 cents). This means that ordinary users can also easily participate in content creation and transactions without worrying about high gas fees. As of March 2025, Zora has attracted 2.4 million collectors and 618,000 creators, which shows the vitality of the platform.
“Instagram on the blockchain”: content is wealth
Zora's core innovation is its "Instagram on Chain" model. Every time a user posts content (pictures, videos, text), the platform automatically generates an ERC-20 token called "Content Coin". These tokens are tradable, and creators can get dividends from transaction fees. For example, 1 billion tokens are generated for each post, and creators automatically receive 10 million, with the option to buy more. Likes and comments can also bring mining rewards, which is simply the blockchain version of the "attention economy"!
“Token Social”: How dazzling is your homepage?
Zora also launched a "token social" feature: users who hold more tokens will have their homepage borders become more shiny, just like the QQ Show of the past. This show-off mechanism not only enhances social fun, but also stimulates the demand for holding and trading tokens. According to NFTevening, this feature helped Zora seize market share from competitors such as OpenSea and become a dark horse in the Web3 social field.
3｜Base Chain and Zora’s collaboration: from controversy to success
Base chain is an Ethereum Layer2 solution developed by Coinbase, known for its low cost and high efficiency. Zora chose to issue $ZORA on the Base chain to improve the usability and user coverage of the token. Jesse Pollak, head of Base, is a super fan of Zora. Since February 2025, he has released a large number of content coins on Zora, including meeting minutes, community announcements, and even Vitalik Buterin's documentary trailer. These contents have triggered heated discussions in the community about the "on-chain renaissance".
"Base is for everyone" controversy
On April 17, 2025, Base published a post on the Zora platform titled "Base is for everyone" and generated an ERC-20 token. As a result, the market value of the token soared to $17 million within a few minutes, but quickly plummeted 90% to about $2 million (Protos). The community was in an uproar, with some accusing Base of "fleecing" and even suspecting that it was "official leeks."
Base officials responded quickly, saying that this was a "performance art experiment" and that no tokens had ever been sold. Jesse Pollak humorously said in Fortune Crypto: "If I issue one coin, they say I am a rug; if I issue 10, they say I am hyping; if I issue 100, they will understand." What is even more surprising is that this incident has caused Zora's popularity to soar. The next day, the market value of the token rebounded by more than 10 times, attracting a large number of new users. This "zero-cost marketing" made Zora's name spread throughout the Web3 circle.
IV｜Future Outlook and Risk Warning
In the future, Zora plans to develop cross-chain extensions and more social token gameplay to attract a wider range of users and developers. In addition, liquidity and community incentive mechanisms will continue to be improved to create a more diversified ecosystem. However, rapid expansion may bring technical challenges. For example, how to ensure network security and scalability while maintaining low gas fees is a key issue that the Zora team needs to solve.
Security Challenges
As a Memecoin, the price of $ZORA is closely tied to community sentiment, and volatility risk cannot be ignored;
The on-chain tokenization model needs to strengthen anti-manipulation and improve transparency to avoid repeating the mistakes of “rapid rise and fall”;
As the user scale increases, network security and scalability require continuous optimization by the project party and regular smart contract audits to protect user safety.
5. Conclusion
Zora's $ZORA token issuance marks its further exploration in the field of NFT and social finance. Through low-cost Layer2 network, content tokenization and social show-off mechanism, Zora is opening up new possibilities for Web3 social platforms. Although the cooperation with Base chain has caused some controversy, it has also brought unprecedented attention to Zora.
However, as a Memecoin, its high price volatility and speculative risks in the market remind participants to be cautious. Zora's future development will depend on whether it can find a balance between innovation and stability while maintaining the trust and support of the community. In any case, Zora's transformation path brings exciting imagination space for the future of digital art and the on-chain economy.
