Binance Ecosystem Value: $302 Billion
Solana Ecosystem Value: $220 Billion
Base Ecosystem Value: $2.4 Billion
Do you see the drastic difference and opportunity window we’re seeing? On the low end, Base’s ecosystem value will increase by 100-fold.
Quick Recap: What is Base?
Base is a Layer-2 (L2) blockchain created by Coinbase. An L2 is technically a chain built on top of another blockchain, in this case Ethereum, to allow for higher speeds and lower fees. There are many other L2s such as Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync and Starknet, but none compare to Base. Why? Simple, because of the Coinbase Effect.
Coinbase’s goal is to onboard 1M developers and 1B users onto Base. Can they do it? They have over 100M users already, over $200B in assets on the exchange, they manage 90% of the Bitcoin ETF money (including Blackrock’s) and they are the top crypto exchange; especially after FTX’s failure and Binance’s legal issues.
![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/49411e73eb07d23712a68dfb056771d6.png)
This is a screenshot from Base’s official website (old data, real number is $200B now). So don’t take our word, take theirs. It’s clear that Coinbase wants to take all that money on-chain (Base).
In other words, they not only can do it, they will do it. So, don’t fade Base.
How to Invest?
Base does not have a native token for the chain, yet. They’ve been saying that there won’t be a token and maybe that stays the case for a while but eventually we’re confident they'll launch one.
But, given Base’s extensive building at that point, the valuation it comes on the market at will be too high to expect a high return, it won’t be a SOL or BNB at $1 kind of situation. You’ll benefit from the airdrop though, likely by a lot, so start using it. But again, as of today there's no Base token to buy.
“How do I invest then?” This is where you start digging into Base’s ecosystem and start buying into innovative projects. You have everything from DEXs to Derivatives (DeFi), Decentralized Gaming (DeGaming), Decentralized Social Media (DeSo), NFTs, Memecoins and everything in between.
You will need to download Coinbase Wallet on your phone and fund it with some ETH (here is a good tutorial we found). Once done, Bridge your ETH over to Base and start swapping to buy the tokens you want.
Let us guide you and give you the lay of the land.
Keep in mind that we’re a random Instagram page, so don’t blindly trust some words you’re seeing on your screen and don’t go all in for god’s sake. Base is so early that even small amounts can return really high profits.
DeFi on Base
These are at the core of any ecosystem, because you cannot trade tokens without them. To be clear, we’ll only be mentioning the projects that are exclusively on Base, not things like Uniswap that already are on 10+ chains.
Aerodrome Finance (AERO) | MCap: $315M *
This is the main DEX (decentralized exchange) on Base, besides Uniswap. It is launched by the same team that built Velodrome Finance (VELO) on the Optimism L2. It uses a smart model that allows teams to incentivize liquidity on their own token (deeper liquidity = better user experience and welcoming to whales). The AERO token has already gone up 20x and we've telling some of you about it via DMs (when asked).
Seamless (SEAM) | MCap: $78M *
Borrowing and Lending platform (i.e. money market). Study Aave to understand how big these types of platforms are. They are boring for the average person but they are a backbone of DeFi. SEAM is also listed on Coinbase, it is a likely candidate for becoming a Base Bluechip Asset.
Moonwell (WELL) | MCap: $110M
Another money market platform. The yields aren’t the highest but they are attractive and they’re pumping the numbers up by giving out incentives in WELL. This is a double-edged sword because it brings in capital through the attractive yield but also dilutes the WELL token.
Equalizer Exchange (SCALE) | MCap: $11.7M
A DEX that has their equivalent already launched and established on the Fantom blockchain with the EQUAL token trading at 10x the valuation of SCALE. Given that we think Base is going to be bigger than other chains, then there’s an opportunity for SCALE to scale.
Sonne Finance (SONNE) | MCap: $6.5M
A smaller money market platform that really needs to find a way to increase the yield on their lending market, otherwise they won’t grow much. Their only yield that’s currently attractive is yield on USDC.
AlienBase (ALB) | MCap: $3.5M *
Another DEX Small valuation, high risk, high potential. AlienBase is starting to catch traction amongst crypto natives, this is mainly why its valuation has gone up.
NetherFi (NFI) | MCap: $1.9M
This is a pure derivatives exchange that offers users perpetual futures (you know that thing your friends use to access very high leverage? Yes, that’s perps). NetherFi is pretty basic, nothing special, just a low valuation. The biggest Perp Platforms on Base are going to be IntentX and Avantis, but they don’t have tokens yet so you can also trade on them to get the airdrop in the future.
CitadelSwap (FORT) | MCap: $1.2M
This is an extremely small one, you don’t need this one to be a winner to make money, you just need it to be a mover. It’s a DEX, that also offers perpetual futures and a launchpad for new projects. Their team has been very quiet and that’s the reason for the low valuation.
FXDX (FXDX) | MCap: $500k
Another basic perps exchange but they have a V2 launching soon (unknown date) and that’s enough of a catalyst to push price up. Unlikely a winner over the long-term though, their team isn’t made of relentless builders.
GrandBase (GB) was removed from the list as their team took predatory action against token holders.
DeGaming on Base
This is where we believe a lot of the growth is going to happen. Coinbase is focusing on bringing 1B users in and they definitely won’t come to use DeFi, they need mainstream applications like Gaming and Social Media (next).
Echelon Prime (PRIME) | MCap: $560M *
PRIME is at the intersection of AI and Gaming, two large industries. They currently power a game called Parallel Life (though not the most interesting gameplay) and they share PRIME tokens with users. The interesting part is a new chain called “Nim” that supposedly powers an AI Gaming chain airdropped some of their tokens to PRIME token holders. So, holding PRIME is becoming rewarding.
Lorak (SHARD) | MCap: $2.7M
This is the token of a new game built on Landtorn (which has a non-tradeable token: TORN). The interesting part isn’t actually holding SHARD but rather earning TORN (details here).
Iskra (ISK) | MCap: $1.6M
Iskra moved to Base on the 21st of March. Similar to Echelon Prime (no AI though), they power different games that people can play and earn from. What’s most interesting is the low valuation that allows someone to buy a small amount and potentially make a decent return.
DeSo on Base
Another mainstream application is Social Media (we’re all endless scrollers at times). To onboard 1B users, they need something like that.
As of now there are no official Base DeSo tokens that you can purchase. The largest platform by far is called Farcaster, on top of which different social media platforms can be built in an interoperable way for users. Try out their version of Twitter called Warpcast (download on your phone), they are integrating many Web3 features that allow you to, for example mint NFTs directly on there, buy tokens, etc.
One example was the memecoin DEGEN (MCap: $567M) being airdropped to some Warpcasters and now being used as a way to tip high quality content creators on the platform. It has essentially become the unofficial Warpcast token and it has also become the "almost official" token for the Decentralized Instagram: Drakula.App.
Speaking of memecoins, there are too many to count on Base already. Let’s dive into the top ones.
Memecoins on Base
Memecoins in 2024 are the same as NFTs in 2021. They are popular, easy to buy and they’ve made millionaires. Granted, this is all temporary and the hype won’t last forever. On Base though, the hype is only just getting started.
Note: We added the token contract address because finding these tokens may be hard. This makes it easier and you can vet that information on DexTools.io or CoinMarketCap.
Toshi (TOSHI) | MCap: $256M *. OG Base memecoin, as well as the most popular. Likely gets to $1B+. Token Contract Address: 0xac1bd2486aaf3b5c0fc3fd868558b082a531b2b4
Mochi (MOCHI) | MCap: $61M. Second in line to Toshi in terms of OGs, but its hype has started to fade. Maybe they redeem themselves, maybe they don’t. Memecoins are sort of a gamble anyway. Token Contract Address: 0xf6e932ca12afa26665dc4dde7e27be02a7c02e50
Brett (BRETT) | MCap: $403M: Second biggest memecoin after DEGEN. Token Contract Address: 0x532f27101965dd16442e59d40670faf5ebb142e4
Dog in Me (DOGINME) | MCap: $100M: Really hard to make up reasons as to why memecoins go up besides people liking the meme? Token Contract Address: 0x6921b130d297cc43754afba22e5eac0fbf8db75b
Base God (TYBG) | MCap: $60M: A meme inspired by Brian Armstrong, the ticker is literally saying TY (thank you) to him. Token Contract Address: 0x0d97f261b1e88845184f678e2d1e7a98d9fd38de
Basenji (BENJI) | MCap: $36M *: This weirdly caught traction overnight. Personally bought some just shy of $0.004 per BENJI and woke up to $0.026 less than 24H later. Token Contract Address: 0xbc45647ea894030a4e9801ec03479739fa2485f0
Boge (BOGE) | MCap: $15M: Inspired by Doge with a one letter difference. Token Contract Address: 0x4e496c0256fb9d4cc7ba2fdf931bc9cbb7731660
Poncho (PONCHO) | MCap: $13.5M: Don’t really know at this point, maybe just a cute cat? Token Contract Address: 0xc2fe011c3885277c7f0e7ffd45ff90cadc8ecd12
Bloofostercoin (BLOO) | MCap: $12M *: “Blue” for Coinbase’s color. The one thing that sets this one apart is the fact that they are very active and consistent on social media. Token Contract Address: 0x8a5f9a6b653ecbdb406f9eb5f0c8ddba10919aec
When it comes to memes, you have to understand that it is community that determines whether one will live on or die soon. In either case, never bet too much on memecoins. There’s no intrinsic value that they start with, rather they cumulate it over time by building a community; similar to how many NFT projects become successful over time.
Note: NORMIE was omitted from the list due to their exploit, which has a high probability of being an insider job. Naturally, with memecoins come extreme risk and an exploit like this one is a reminder of that.
NFTs
Base also has its fair share of NFTs. People will make money from tokens and they’ll want to show off that wealth by owning unique NFTs. The two most interesting collections at the moment are:
BaseFellas (OpenSea URL): This can be compared to CryptoPunks, though don’t take this as a promise that they’ll ever reach near 100 ETH in floor price.
OnChain Gaias (OpenSea URL): The most interesting part of this NFT is the fact that the DAO keeps buying Base tokens. This is a refreshing approach.
Long piece and loads of information. We will be releasing much more Base-related content but the first one really needed to recap everything that’s happening. Read it a few times, look through the projects, try them, follow their socials (mainly Twitter) and keep your ear to the ground.
By the way, every project with a * next to it is one of our favorites on Base so far. And yes, we may own some of the tokens mentioned above.
Many new tokens will come soon to Base, we’ll inform you of the top ones at the right time. Make sure to turn on Instagram notifications for 0x100x and follow us.
Base is going to eclipse Solana and BNB Chain. Don’t miss out.
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